Philip Massinger Quotes

Do you take me for a sponge, my lord? hamlet: Ay, sir; that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end: he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to be last swallowed: when he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again. rosencrantz: I understand you not, my lord. hamlet: I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.

Safer to be feared than loved.

Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.

The art of being a slave is to rule one's master.

Even a faithful mistress can be bent by constant threats.

Life is a corrupting process from the time a child learns to play his mother off against his father in the politics of when to go to bed; he who fears corruption fears life.

Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.

If you really think that ambition, power, lust, desire are not as applicable in the media as in politics or on Wall Street or anywhere else, you're deluding yourself.

There is no more contemptible poison than power over one's fellow men.

You are for kings the ears with which they hear, the eyes with which they see, the tongues with which they speak, the hands with which they strike.

Men are less hesitant about harming someone who makes himself loved than one who makes himself feared because love is held together by a chain of obligation which, since men are wretched creatures, is broken on every occasion in which their own interests are concerned; but fear is sustained by dread of punishment which will never abandon you.

You can't be loved for long if you're not feared.

Guilt was the grease in which the wheels of the authority turned.

I ask for so little.Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave

Obedience simulates subordination as fear of the police simulates honesty.

Everyone is afraid of you and when folk are afraid of a person it usually means the person is cruel in some way, and I think you are cruel, Miss Marquess, but please don’t punish me for saying it. I think you know you’re cruel. I think you like being cruel. I think calling you cruel is the same as calling someone else kind. And I don’t want to run errands for someone cruel.

I would rather you love me, but if not love, fear will do.

HERE ARE YOUR INSTRUCTIONS, CROWLEY. And suddenly he knew. He hated that. They could just as easily have told him, they didn't suddenly have to drop chilly knowledge straight into his brain.

Fear shall force what friendship cannot win.

Social control is best managed through fear.

The supreme mystery of despotism, its prop and stay, is to keep men in a state of deception, and with the specious title of religion to cloak the fear by which they must be held in check, so that they will fight for their servitude as if for salvation.

This is how it is today: The teachers are afraid of the principals. The principals are afraid of the superintendents. The superintendents are afraid of the board of education. The board is afraid of the parents. The parents are afraid of the children. The children are afraid of nothing!

Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver; and adulation is not of more service to the people than to kings.

He wants you to smile and smell sweet and be his lady love. He wants to hear you recite all your pretty little words the way the septa taught you. He wants you to love him... and fear him.

I'll do a deal with you McFarlane," he said. "You can exist. And you can even have coffee. But if you raise your voice or make any sudden movements, I shall die. And that'll show you." Seb shrugged in return, hiding how pleased he was pretty badly. "Fair enough.