The needs that are met by tyrants are as real as those to which freedom answers; sometimes they are more urgent. Tyrants promise security - and release from the tedium of everyday existence. To be sure, this is only a confused fantasy. The drab truth of tyranny is a life spent in waiting. But the perennial romance of tyranny comes from its promising its subjects a life more interesting than any they can contrive for themselves.

The Unsaved: The Grand Inquisitor and Flying Fish (p. 124) - Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals (2002)