Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes

Every man needs slaves like he needs clean air. To rule is to breathe, is it not? And even the most disenfranchised get to breathe. The lowest on the social scale have their spouses or their children.

Was there ever any domination which did not appear natural to those who possessed it?

Every organism, every human being, must conquer or serve.

If there is a State, then there is domination, and in turn, there is slavery.

The natural course of power is to make the many slaves to the few.

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

The exclusive owners of property ever have been, ever will, and perhaps ever ought to be the virtual rulers of mankind

How many, even of the better sort, would choose to be slaves to those above them, provided they might exercise an arbitrary and tyrannical rule over all below them?

It is a novel kind of supremacy, the best that life can offer, to have as servants by skill those who by nature are our masters.

Good masters generally have bad slaves, and bad slaves have good masters.

Where equality is undisputed, so also is subordination.

Power is not something that can be assumed or discarded at will like underwear.

It is one thing to own a woman, and it is another to have her within the bonds of an excellent mastery.

If an individual is born with the obligation to obey, who is born with the right to command?

The first is last, and the last is first.

It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.

Proclaim human equality as loudly as you like, Witless will serve his brother.

It is not true that people are naturally equal for no two people can be together for even a half an hour without one acquiring an evident superiority over the other.

What we really need to be understanding is that all of these things matter and they all stem from the fact that certain people live with power and authority and they want to maintain it.

We are a naturally hierarchical species.

One of the very basic ideas of Post-Modernism is rejection of arbitrary power structures. Different people are sensitive to different kinds of power structures.

Before passing different laws for different people, I'd relinquish myself unto you as your slave.

Some people are by nature slaves and will always be so.

He who allows me to rule is in fact my master.

Hierarchy is is much reviled in the present day.