Quotes about Subservience

Federica Montseny

Authority is something from which we are constantly subtracting, of which there remains always a residue, and which we attempt to make smaller and smaller.

Albert J. Nock

Considering mankind's indifference to freedom, their easy gullibility and their facile response to conditioning, one might very plausibly argue that collectivism is the political mode best suited to their disposition and their capacities. Under its regime, the citizen, like the soldier, is relieved of the burden of initiative and is divested of all responsibility, save for doing as he is told.

Guru Nanak

The kings are ravenous beasts, their ministers are dogs.

Head of the Sikh Religion

Arthur Schopenhauer

Every true thinker for himself is so far like a monarch; he is absolute, and recognizes nobody above him. His judgments, like the decrees of a monarch, spring from his own sovereign power and proceed directly from himself. He takes as little notice of authority as a monarch does of a command; nothing is valid unless he has himself authorized it. On the other hand, those of vulgar minds, who are swayed by all kinds of current opinions, authorities, and prejudices, are like the people which in silence obey the law and commands.

This quotation reflects the Spinoza view that the individual is supreme in determining truth.

Eric Hoffer

People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.

Rollo May

The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformity.

Edward R. Murrow

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.

Jiang Qing

I was Chairman Mao's dog. I bit whomever he asked me to bite.

Sun Yat-sen

The Chinese people have only family and clan solidarity; they do not have national spirit...they are just a heap of loose sand...Other men are the carving knife and serving dish; we are the fish and the meat.

Haile Selassie

It is far better to die on the battlefield than live as a slave.

This line was used in the WPA Federal Theater Project. The play was closed down, because the State Department was distressed that the Federal Theater quoting heads of State might be insulting to the world leaders. Mussolini was another character in the play and he was depicted as the boorish thug that he turned out to be. It was that which offended the government officials who closed the show before it could open. FDR used a similar line 6 years later. See {32529} . Dolores Ibarruri in the Spanish Civil War is quoted with a similar phrase at about the same time. See {604321}

Leonardo da Vinci

Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.

Abdul Hamid II

Let me live and I will do all you wish.

He was sent into exile.

William Shakespeare

Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,
And for thy maintenance commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks and true obedience;
Too little payment for so great a debt.

Baruch Spinoza

If men's minds were as easily controlled as their tongues, every king would sit safely on his throne

Spinoza’s ideas were considered so radical and dangerous that he was the only man in history who was excommunicated by the Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The deputies of the people should not and cannot be the people's representatives, they can only be its servants.... The moment that people give power to their representatives, they abdicate their liberty.