Luc de Clapiers Quotes
In order to protect himself from force, man was obliged to submit to justice. Justice or force: he was compelled to choose between the two masters, so little are we made to be independent.
Clapiers, Luc de. Introduction à la connaissance de l'esprit humain, suivie de Réflexions et maximes. Paris: Briasson, 1746.
This is a logically equivalent phrasing of Lord Acton’s famous quote: {292904}.
The British Prime Minster was supporting the partition of India so there would be an independent Muslim Pakistan which India had the power to do before they granted independence, Nehru told him that this would be against the wishes of the majority Hindus of India and therefore Attlee should reconsider. But to not have a Muslim independent state would mean compelling the Muslims to be in a unified country which they opposed. So while Nehru's point was well taken, there was no way that Attlee could do anything that would not involve compulsion of at least one of the two major factions in India, and as things would turn out, both sides felt compelled and limited their cooperation with each other and the British.
Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues was a French writer and moralist. He died at age 31, in broken health, having published the year prior—anonymously—a collection of essays and aphorisms with the encouragement of Voltaire, his friend. He first received public notice under his own name in 1797, and from 1857 on, his aphorisms became popular. In the history of French literature, his significance lies chiefly in his friendship with Voltaire (20 years his senior).
