Quotes · Quote card
Quotation from Discourse on Voluntary Servitude by Étienne de La Boétie
“I do not advise you to shake or overturn him, forbear only to support him, and you will see him, like a great Colossus from which the Base is taken away, fall with his own Weight, and be broken in pieces.”
Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, Of Voluntary Servitude, the address to the peoples, trans. Anonymous (1735)
The image of the colossus explains why no violence is required to end a tyranny.
Citation: "I do not advise you to shake or overturn him, forbear only to support him, and you will see him, like a great Colossus from which the Base is taken away, fall with his own Weight, and be broken in pieces." — Étienne de La Boétie, Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, Of Voluntary Servitude, the address to the peoples, trans. Anonymous (1735). (id discourse-on-voluntary-servitude-q2)
