Best 7 quotes of Etienne De La Boetie on MyQuotes

It has always happened that tyrants, in order to strengthen their power, have made every effort to train their people not only in obedience and servility toward themselves, but also in adoration.

It is incredible how as soon as a people become subject, it promptly falls into such complete forgetfulness of its freedom that it can hardly be roused to the point of regaining it, obeying so easily and willingly that one is led to say that this people has not so much lost its liberty as won its enslavement.

Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed.

Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break into pieces.

Mais, ô bon Dieu ! que peut être cela ? comment dirons-nous que cela s’appelle ? quelle malheur est celui-là ? quel vice, ou plutôt quel malheureux vice ? Voir un nombre infini de personnes non pas obéir, mais servir […].

Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces.

Soiés resolus de ne servir plus, et vous voilà libres.