C. S. Lewis Quotes

Whether the institution to be defended is slavery, political absolutism, or the absolutism of the head of a family, we are always expected to judge of it from its best instances; and we are presented with pictures of loving exercise of authority on one side, loving submission to it on the other

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

Nature rejects the monarch, not the man; The subject, not the citizen; for kings And subjects, mutual foes, forever play A losing game into each other's hands, Whose stakes are vice and misery. The man Of virtuous soul commands not, nor obeys.

When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find that far more, and far more hideous, crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.

The doctrine of blind obedience and unqualified submission to any human power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, is the doctrine of despotism, and ought to have no place among Republicans and Christians.

In their rules there was only one clause: Do what you will.

He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.

Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master.

The first revolt is against the supreme tyranny of theology, of the phantom of God. As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth.

God himself has no right to be a tyrant.

One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.

There is no such thing as liberty. You only change one sort of domination for another. All we can do is to choose our master.

There are people in this servile world who will endure any trampling, and at the first beck rush delightedly to proffer their assistance.

I would not like a king who could obey.

Patriotism ... for rulers is nothing else than a tool for achieving their power-hungry and money-hungry goals, and for the ruled it means renouncing their human dignity, reason, conscience, and slavish submission to those in power. ... Patriotism is slavery.

The tyrant is only the slave turned inside out.

If men are not kept straight by duty, they must be by fear. The more they are kept by fear, the less they are free.

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.

I would rather hew wood than be a king under the conditions of the King of England.

Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them.

If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it..

He that in the state of Nature would take away the freedom that belongs to any one in that state must necessarily be supposed to have a design to take away everything else

They (tyrants) should be attacked, not as ordinary enemies, but as assassins and rebellious brigands. Kings, aristocrats, tyrants, whoever they may be, are slaves in revolt against the sovereign of the land, who is the human race, and against the legislator of the Universe, who is Nature.

It is right that what is just should be obeyed; it is necessary that what is strongest should be obeyed. Justice without might is helpless; might without justice is tyrannical.