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Servitude Quotes

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Servitude Quotes

“Among other possibilities, money was invented to make it possible for a foolish man to control wise men; a weak man, strong men; a child, old men; an ignorant man, knowledgeable men; and for a dwarf to control giants.”

“If you engage with someone as if they are faulty, or somehow inferior, you are attempting to direct or assign them to the low-range spectrum. Of course, none is obliged to accept these implications, but certain constructs make it near impossible to reject them. In the Artificium, parents regularly do this with their children. Already the imposing of authority, usually explained as a necessary teaching of discipline and manners, is a subterfuge method of control. The key aspect here is the imposition of authority. In lieu of authority, there should be respect, and respect is always earned. However, in taking the authority route, parents insist on obedience. Thus, they help instill the parameters for obedience later on. Obedient children become obedient adults. Obedient of what? It does not matter... Whatever the authority figure says is right. In this manner, parents can almost guarantee a smooth transition towards servitude or serfdom of their children later in life. In other words, they help raise slaves ― to authority.”

“The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments—the ones abolishing slavery and guaranteeing citizenship rights—still exist, but they’ve been so weakened by custom, by Congress and the various state legislatures, and by recent Supreme Court decisions that they don’t much matter. Indenturing indigents is supposed to keep them employed, teach them a trade, feed them, house them, and keep them out of trouble. In fact, it’s just one more way of getting people to work for nothing or almost nothing.”

“Rien n'est plus inconsistant qu'un régime politique qui est indifférent à la vérité: mais rien n'est plus dangereux qu'un système politique qui prétend prescrire la vérité. La fonction du 'dire vrai' n'a pas à prendre la forme de la loi, tout comme il serait vain de croire qu'elle réside de plein droit dans les jeux spontanés de la communication. La tâche du dire vrai est un travail infini: la respecter dans sa complexité est une obligation dont aucun pouvoir ne peut faire l'économie. Sauf à imposer le silence de la servitude.”

“It's politics. You are angry with politics. I understand that. Truly, I do. As powerful as I am, where I come from I am considered a third-tier being. The lords and the royals—some of whom know nothing of the horrors and hardships of war—reign over me. It angers me to no end, and yet I continue. I follow. I do what I must. I do what I have to. I follow the path laid out in front of me. I do my duty.” “Then how are you any different from the slaves?” “We are all slaves, whether we want to accept it or not. It's finding higher meaning in the process of servitude where we find relief.”

“Don’t we see that men’s rightful task is to go out to work and wear themselves out trying to accumulate wealth, as though they were our factors or stewards, so that we can remain at home like the lady of the house directing their work and enjoying the profit of their labors? That, if you like, is the reason why men are naturally stronger and more robust than us — they need to be, so they can put up with the hard labor they must endure in our service.”

“Chain! Chain you! What! Run you not, then, just where you please, and when?” “Not always, sir; but what of that?” “Enough for me, to spoil your fat! It ought to be a precious price which could to servile chains entice; for me, I’ll shun them while I’ve wit.” So ran Sir Wolf, and runneth yet.”

“Many if not most slaves would have each readily jumped, and many if not most slaves would each readily jump, at the opportunity to be a master, if such an opportunity presents or had presented itself.”

“He who want to be great must first be a servant.”

“There is in fact a manly and legitimate passion for equality that incites men to want to be strong and esteemed. This passion tends to elevate the small to the rank of the great. But in the human heart a depraved taste for equality is also found that leads the weak to want to bring the strong down to their level and that reduces men to preferring equality in servitude to inequality in liberty.”

“So tell me, giant philosopher, why we're not dukes," the Gray Mouser demanded, unrolling a forefinger from the fist on his knee so that it pointed across the brazier at Fafhrd. "Or emperors, for that matter, or demigods." "We are not dukes because we're no man's man," Fafhrd replied smugly, settling his shoulders against the stone horse-trough. "Even a duke must butter up a king, and demigods the gods. We butter no one. We go our own way, choosing our own adventure—and our own follies! Better freedom and a chilly road than a warm hearth and servitude." "There speaks the hound turned out by his last master and not yet found new boots to slaver on," the Mouser retorted with comradely sardonic impudence. "Look you, you noble liar, we've labored for a dozen lords and kings and merchants fat. You've served Movarl across the Inner Sea. I've served the bandit Harsel. We've both served this Glipkerio, whose girl is tied to Ilthmar this same night." "Those are exception," Fafhrd protested grandly. "And even when we serve, we make the rules. We bow to no man's ultimate command, dance to no wizard's drumming, join no mob, hark to no wildering hate-call. When we draw sword, it's for ourselves alone.”

“It contrives the acceptance of injustice, crime, and falsehood by the promise of a miracle. Still greater production, still more power, uninterrupted labor, incessant suffering, permanent war, and then a moment will come when universal bondage in the totalitarian empire will be miraculously changed into its opposite: free leisure in a universal republic. Pseudo-revolutionary mystification has now acquired a formula: all freedom must be crushed in order to conquer the empire, and one day the empire will be the equivalent of freedom. And so the way to unity passes through totality.[...]Totality is, in effect, nothing other than the ancient dream of unity common to both believers and rebels, but projected horizontally onto an earth deprived of God. To renounce every value, therefore, amounts to renouncing rebellion in order to accept the Empire and slavery. Criticism of formal values cannot pass over the concept of freedom. Once the impossibility has been recognized of creating, by means of the forces of rebellion alone, the free individual of whom the romantics dreamed, freedom itself has also been incorporated in the movement of history. It has become freedom fighting for existence, which, in order to exist, must create itself. Identified with the dynamism of history, it cannot play its proper role until history comes to a stop, in the realization of the Universal City. Until then, every one of its victories will lead to an antithesis that will render it pointless. The German nation frees itself from its oppressors, but at the price of the freedom of every German. The individuals under a totalitarian regime are not free, even though man in the collective sense is free. Finally, when the Empire delivers the entire human species, freedom will reign over herds of slaves, who at least will be free in relation to God and, in general, in relation to every kind of transcendence. The dialectic miracle, the transformation of quantity into quality, is explained here: it is the decision to call total servitude freedom. Moreover, as in all the examples cited by Hegel and Marx, there is no objective transformation, but only a subjective change of denomination. In other words, there is no miracle. If the only hope of nihilism lies in thinking that millions of slaves can one day constitute a humanity which will be freed forever, then history is nothing but a desperate dream. Historical thought was to deliver man from subjection to a divinity; but this liberation demanded of him the most absolute subjection to historical evolution. Then man takes refuge in the permanence of the party in the same way that he formerly prostrated himself before the altar. That is why the era which dares to claim that it is the most rebellious that has ever existed only offers a choice of various types of conformity. The real passion of the twentieth century is servitude.”

“Hon lärde sig kort sagt otroligt snabbt hur han ville ha det. En människa med sådan känslighet för andras önskningar hade under andra förhållanden lätt kunnat bli politiker, Eller kanske art director i en byrå. Dick hade sett alldeles för mycket av livet för att tro att de som hade ett fint yrke var de som var speciellt lämpade för det. Ofta var det tvärtom. Vad människor dög till visade sig bara i långa loppet. Eller i något mycket unikt ögonblick, som var just deras och ingen annans.”

“Your realm is an insane place. In Volaria, no-one goes hungry, slaves are no use when they starve. Those freeborn too lazy or lacking in intelligence to turn sufficient profit to feed themselves are made slaves so they can generate wealth for those deserving of freedom, and be fed in return. Here, your people are chained by their freedom, free to starve and beg from the rich. It's disgusting.”

“I opened my louvres and looked at Comfort, walking in the heavy rain, crying bitterly. I heard mom saying, Anywhere you want to go, you can, but don't come back again to this house. Comfort was beautiful, but her stealing attributes brought reproach on her and painted her beauty with dark impressions. I looked at her, walking barefooted on the muddy ground congested with rain water.”

“Je doute que toute la philosophie du monde parvienne à supprimer l'esclavage : on en changera tout au plus le nom. Je suis capable d'imaginer des formes de servitudes pires que les notre parce que plus insidieuses : soit qu'on réussisse à transformer les hommes en machines stupides et satisfaites, qui se croient libres alors qu'elles sont asservies, soit qu'on développe chez eux, à l'exclusion des loisirs et des plaisirs humains, un goût du travail aussi forcené que la passion de la guerre chez les races barbares. A cette servitude de l'esprit, ou de l'imagination humaine, je préfère encore notre esclavage de fait.”

“Je doute que toute la philosophie du monde parvienne à supprimer l'esclavage : on en changera tout au plus le nom. Je suis capable d'imaginer des formes de servitudes pires que les nôtres parce que plus insidieuses : soit qu'on réussisse à transformer les hommes en machines stupides et satisfaites, qui se croient libres alors qu'elles sont asservies, soit qu'on développe chez eux, à l'exclusion des loisirs et des plaisirs humains, un goût du travail aussi forcené que la passion de la guerre chez les races barbares. A cette servitude de l'esprit, ou de l'imagination humaine, je préfère encore notre esclavage de fait.”

“Coincident with the right of individual property under the provisions of our Government is the right of individual property. . . . When once the right of the individual to liberty and equality is admitted, there is no escape from the conclusion that he alone is entitled to the rewards of his own industry. Any other conclusion would necessarily imply either privilege or servitude.”

“If love is the soul of Christian existence, it must be at the heart of every other Christian virtue. Thus, for example, justice without love is legalism; faith without love is ideology; hope without love is self-centeredness; forgiveness without love is self-abasement; fortitude without love is recklessness; generosity without love is extravagance; care without love is mere duty; fidelity without love is servitude. Every virtue is an expression of love. No virtue is really a virtue unless it is permeated, or informed, by love.”