There is in our souls some native seed of reason, which, if nourished by good counsel and training, flowers into virtue, but which, on the other hand… - Étienne de La Boétie

Men accept servility in order to acquire wealth; as if they could acquire anything of their own when they cannot even assert that they belong to themselves.

Tyrants would distribute largess, a bushel of wheat, a gallon of wine, and a sesterce: and then everybody would shamelessly cry, “Long live the King!” The fools did not realize that they were merely recovering a portion of their own property, and that their ruler could not have given them what they were receiving without having first taken it from them.

Friendship ... receives its real sustenance from an equality that, to proceed without a limp, must have its two limbs equal.