“What gods did your people worship?” “Oh, my people had many gods. There was Conformity, and Authority, and Expense Account, and Opinion. And there w… - H. Beam Piper

Oh, he won't think of it in those terms. He'll be preventing me from sabotaging the Emancipation. He doesn't want to wait three generations; he wants to free them at once. Everything has to be at once for six-month-old puppies, six-year-old children, and reformers of any age.

Count Erskyll said nothing for a moment. He was opposed to the use of force. Force, he believed, was the last resort of incompetence; he had said so frequently enough since this operation had begun. Of course, he was absolutely right, though not in the way he meant. Only the incompetent wait until the last extremity to use force, and by then, it is usually too late to use anything, even prayer.

Keep a government poor and weak and it's your servant; when it is rich and powerful it becomes your master.