Tyrants would distribute largess, a bushel of wheat, a gall… - Étienne de La Boétie

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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.

Étienne de La Boétie

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About Étienne de La Boétie

Étienne de La Boétie (1 November 1530 – 18 August 1563) was a French judge, political philosopher, and anarchist.

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Alternative Names: Étienne de la Boétie • Etienne de la Boetie • La Boétie • Etienne de La Boetie • Etienne de La Boétie • Étienne De La Boétie • Etienne de la boetie • La Boetie • Etienne De La Boetie • On Voluntary Servitude • Étienne de La Boëtie

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Plutarch Edmund Burke Jean-Jacques Rousseau Thomas More Thucydides

Additional quotes by Étienne de La Boétie

Ils veulent servir pour amasser des biens: comme s'ils pouvaient rien gagner qui fût à eux, puisqu'ils ne peuvent même pas dire qu'ils sont à eux-mêmes.

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.

The mob has always behaved in this way—eagerly open to bribes that cannot be honorably accepted, and dissolutely callous to degradation and insult that cannot be honorably endured.

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!… - Étienne de La Boétie

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