„Corrupted freemen are the worst of slaves.“
Prologue to the Gamesters.
Дэвид Гаррик
1717 - 1779Похожие цитаты
„The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves“
— George Washington first President of the United States 1732 - 1799
Address to the Continental Army before the Battle of Long Island (27 August 1776)
1770s
Контексте: The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die.
„A measure had been proposed in the Roman Senate to dress slaves in a uniform livery, so as to distinguish them from freemen. It was killed straightway by the argument that this would disclose to the slaves their numerical strength.“
— Bouck White American author and novelist 1874 - 1951
Источник: The Call of the Carpenter (1914), p. 14
„It appears, accordingly, from the experience of all ages and nations, I believe, that the work done by freemen comes cheaper in the end than that performed by slaves.“
— Adam Smith Scottish moral philosopher and political economist 1723 - 1790
Источник: (1776), Book I, Chapter VIII.
„Our worst enemies here are not the ignorant and the simple, however cruel; our worst enemies are the intelligent and corrupt.“
— Graham Greene, книга The Human Factor
Pt. III, ch. 3 (1978)
The Human Factor (1978)
„The worst of men is he who stops his contributions to charity, eats by himself, and whips his slave.“
— Ali al-Rida eighth of the Twelve Imams 770 - 818
Majlisi, Bihārul Anwār, vol.78, p. 335.
Religious Wisdom
„It is not just power, but impotence, that corrupts people. It gives them the mind and soul of slaves. It makes them indifferent, lazy, cynical, irresponsible, and, above all, stupid.“
— John Holt, книга Escape from Childhood
Escape from Childhood (1974).
„One people will we be, — a band of brothers;
No danger, no distress shall sunder us.
We will be freemen as our fathers were,
And sooner welcome death than live as slaves.
We will rely on God's almighty arm,
And never quail before the power of man.“
— Friedrich Schiller, William Tell
Wir wollen sein ein einzig Volk von Brüdern,
in keiner Not uns trennen und Gefahr.
Wir wollen frei sein, wie die Väter waren,
eher den Tod, als in der Knechtschaft leben.
Wir wollen trauen auf den höchsten Gott
und uns nicht fürchten vor der Macht der Menschen.
Act II, Sc. 2, as translated by C. T. Brooke
Variant translation: We shall be a single People of brethren,
Never to part in danger nor distress.
We shall be free, just as our fathers were,
And rather die than live in slavery.
We shall trust in the one highest God
And never be afraid of human power.
Wilhelm Tell (1803)
„It takes two to corrupt – the corrupted and the corrupter.“
— Mobutu Sésé Seko President of Zaïre 1930 - 1997
Developments.org http://www.developments.org.uk/data/issue30/together-now.htm
Attributed
„From the comparison of theism and idolatry, we may form some other observations, which will also confirm the vulgar observation that the corruption of the best things gives rise to the worst.“
— David Hume, The Natural History of Religion
Part X - With regard to courage or abasement
The Natural History of Religion (1757)
„I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I therefore hate the corrupt, slave-holding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land.“
— Frederick Douglass American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman 1818 - 1895
Appendix
1840s
„Gentlemen on this floor and in the Senate, had repeatedly, during this discussion, asserted that slavery was a moral, political, and personal blessing; that the slave was free from care, contented, happy, fat, and sleek. Comparisons have been instituted between slaves and laboring freemen, much to the advantage of the condition of slavery. Instances are cited where the slave, having tried freedom, had voluntarily returned to resume his yoke. Well, if this be so, let us give all a chance to enjoy this blessing. Let the slaves, who choose, go free; and the free, who choose, become slaves. If these gentlemen believe there is a word of truth in what they preach, the slaveholder need be under no apprehension that he will ever lack bondsmen. Their slaves would remain, and many freemen would seek admission into this happy condition. Let them be active in propagating their principles. We will not complain if they establish Societies in the South for that purpose -- abolition societies to abolish freedom. Nor will we rob the mails to search for incendiary publications in favor of slavery, even if they contain seductive pictures, and cuts of those implements of happiness -- handcuffs, iron yokes and cat-o'-nine tails.“
— Thaddeus Stevens American politician 1792 - 1868
In Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens
„Just as the worst slave-owners were those who were kind to their slaves, and so prevented the horror of the system being realised by those who suffered from it, and understood by those who contemplated it, so, in the present state of things in England, the people who do most harm are the people who try to do most good.“
— Oscar Wilde, книга The Soul of Man under Socialism
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
„It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.“
— Frank Herbert American writer 1920 - 1986
Источник: General sources, Chapterhouse Dune (1985)
Контексте: All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted.
„O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation.“
— Francis Scott Key American lawyer and poet 1779 - 1843
A line in the final stanzas is comparable to "It made and preserves us a nation" in The Flag of our Union by George Pope Morris.
The Star-Spangled Banner (1814)
Контексте: O say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation.
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
„A free Press is the unsleeping guardian of every other right that freemen prize; it is the most dangerous foe of tyranny.“
— Winston S. Churchill Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1874 - 1965
You Get It In Black And White, Collier's, 28 December 1935
Reproduced in The Collected Essays of Sir Winston Churchill, Vol IV, Churchill at Large, Centenary Edition (1976), Library of Imperial History, p. 323. ISBN 0903988453
The 1930s
„“Armies!” he burst out. “The day Freemen organize to invade another area is the day they stop being Freemen. They become soldiers, loyal to the army and their generals. They lose their identification with their homes and families. They become a separate class—an armed, organized class of military specialists no one family can stand against. And on that day, freedom dies for everybody.“
— Algis Budrys American writer 1931 - 2008
The Burning World, pp. 57-58
The Unexpected Dimension (1960)
„Immunity corrupts; absolute immunity corrupts absolutely.“
— John W. Campbell American science fiction writer and editor 1910 - 1971
Editorial in Analog Science Fiction/Fact magazine (1970)
„Mortal combat corrupts, and war corrupts absolutely.“
— Poul Anderson, книга There Will Be Time
Источник: There Will Be Time (1972), Chapter 10 (p. 107)