“Such is the nature of crowds: either they are humble and servile or arrogant and dominating. They are incapable of making moderate use of freedom, which is the middle course, or of keeping it.”

—  Livy

Book XXIV, sec. 25
History of Rome

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Such is the nature of crowds: either they are humble and servile or arrogant and dominating. They are incapable of maki…" by Livy?
Livy photo
Livy 70
Roman historian -59–17 BC

Related quotes

George W. Bush photo

“If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us. If we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

Presidential debate http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/july-dec00/for-policy_10-12.html (11 October 2000).
2000s, 2000

Johannes Kepler photo

“He who will please the crowd and for the sake of the most ephemeral renown will either proclaim those things which nature does not display or even will publish genuine miracles of nature without regard to deeper causes is a spiritually corrupt person… With the best of intentions I publicly speak to the crowd (which is eager for things new) on the subject of what is to come.”

Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer

Translation by an unknown person, from De fundamentis astrologiae certioribus, ibid., from the foreword

Ref: en.wikiquote.org - Johannes Kepler / Mysterium Cosmographicum (1596) / De fundamentis astrologiae certioribus (1601)

José Saramago photo
Scott Jurek photo

“Nature's arena has a way of humbling and energizing us.”

Scott Jurek (1973) American ultramarthon runner

Source: Eat and Run (2012), Ch. 21, p. 219

François-Noël Babeuf photo

“The pretended superiority of man over woman, and the despotic authority which he arrogates to himself, have the same origin as the domination of the nobility.”

François-Noël Babeuf (1760–1797) French political agitator and journalist of the French Revolutionary period

La prétendue supériorité de l'homme sur la femme et la despotique autorité qu'il s'arroge sur elle ont la même origine que la domination de la noblesse.
[in Gracchus Babeuf avec les Egaux, Jean-Marc Shiappa, Les éditions ouvrières, 1991, 44, 27082 2892-7]
On women

Zygmunt Bauman photo

“Avoid the crowd, avoid mass audiences, keep your own counsel, which is the counsel of philosophy—of wisdom you can acquire and make your own.”

Zygmunt Bauman (1925–2017) Polish philosopher and sociologist

[paraphrasing the view of Seneca], p. 34.
The Art of Life (2008)

Epicurus photo
Theodore Roosevelt photo
David Harvey photo

“We have, Marx asserts, built a vast social enterprise which dominates us, delimits our freedoms and ultimately visits upon us the worst forms of degradation.”

David Harvey (1935) British anthropologist

Source: The Limits To Capital (2006 VERSO Edition), Chapter 7, Overaccumulation And 'First Cut' Theory, p. 203
Context: The inner logic that governs the laws of motion of capitalism is cold, ruthless and inexorable, responsive only to the law of value. Yet value is a social relation, a product of a particular historical process. Human beings were organizers, creators and participants in that history. We have, Marx asserts, built a vast social enterprise which dominates us, delimits our freedoms and ultimately visits upon us the worst forms of degradation.

Related topics