The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“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. A man might one day be presented with a sesterce and gorge himself at the public feast, lauding Tiberius and Nero for handsome liberality, who on the morrow, would be forced to abandon his property to their avarice, his children to their lust, his very blood to the cruelty of these magnificent emperors, without offering any more resistance than a stone or a tree stump.” – Étienne de La Boétie. (From Harry Kurz’s 1942 translation of ”Discours de la servitude volontaire ou le Contr’un,” or, in English, “The Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, or the Anti‐Dictator.)




3 Comments

  1. And that good folks, is how the world was run from the very beginning…… Until the enlightenment……..
    And A Republic was born.
    Called the United States of America.
    Where rights came from their Creator.
    Where all people were bound by laws pertaining to All people, none above others, and equal opportunity provided to each and every one, outcome determined by their own efforts.

  2. I highly recommend reading this book. I have a copy I bought years ago on Amazon. I don’t know if JWR’s new bookseller has this or not. It is still a book worth reading.

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