“The public is a ferocious beast: one must chain it up or flee from it.”

—  Voltaire

Le public est une bête féroce: il faut l’enchaîner ou la fuir.
Letter to Mademoiselle Quinault, quoted in Charles Sainte-Beuve, "Lettres inédites de Voltaire," Causeries de Lundi (20 October 1856) http://www.voltaire-integral.com/Grimm/Cayrol2.html; an English translation can be found on this page: http://www.humanistictexts.org/voltaire.htm
Citas

Original

Le public est une bête féroce: il faut l’enchaîner ou la fuir.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The public is a ferocious beast: one must chain it up or flee from it." by Voltaire?
Voltaire photo
Voltaire 167
French writer, historian, and philosopher 1694–1778

Related quotes

Anne Morrow Lindbergh photo

“Here sits the Unicorn;
Leashed by a chain of gold
To the pomengranate tree.
So light a chain to hold
So fierce a beast;”

Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) American aviator and author

The Unicorn in Captivity (1955)
Context: Here sits the Unicorn;
Leashed by a chain of gold
To the pomengranate tree.
So light a chain to hold
So fierce a beast;
Delicate as a cross at rest
On a maiden's breast.
He could snap the golden chain
With one toss of his mane,
If he chose to move,
If he chose to prove
His liberty.
But he does not choose
What choice would lose.
He stays, the Unicorn,
In captivity.

Robert G. Ingersoll photo

“The king said that mankind must not work for themselves. The priest said that mankind must not think for themselves. One forged chains for the hands, the other for the soul.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child (1877)
Context: Nothing has been left undone by the enemies of freedom. Every art and artifice, every cruelty and outrage has been practiced and perpetrated to destroy the rights of man. In this great struggle every crime has been rewarded and every virtue has been punished. Reading, writing, thinking and investigating have all been crimes.
Every science has been an outcast.
All the altars and all the thrones united to arrest the forward march of the human race. The king said that mankind must not work for themselves. The priest said that mankind must not think for themselves. One forged chains for the hands, the other for the soul.

Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough photo

“Every one must be supposed to be cognizant of a public law.”

Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough (1750–1818) Lord Chief Justice of England

Smith v. Beadnell (1807), 1 Camp. 33.

Richard Rodríguez photo
Carole King photo

“Chains, my baby's got me locked up in chains
And they ain't the kind that you can see
Woh these chains of love got a hold on me yeah.”

Carole King (1942) Nasa

Chains (1962), Co-written with Gerry Goffin, first performed by The Cookies
Song lyrics, Singles

Viktor Yanukovych photo

“I am against the idea when we, so to say, throw someone behing the bars, which is the place where they would hide and flee from responsibility. We will surely find them, but they first have to return public money.”

Viktor Yanukovych (1950) Ukrainian politician who was the President of Ukraine

Source: [Янукович про корупціонерів: ховатись не будуть, - одна розмова, будуть – інша, https://www.unian.ua/politics/482166-yanukovich-pro-koruptsioneriv-hovatis-ne-budut-odna-rozmova-budut-insha.html, 2022-06-12, www.unian.ua, uk, 2011-04-11]

Remy de Gourmont photo

“Art must break the chains, all rules and formulas.”

Remy de Gourmont (1858–1915) French writer

L'Idealisme esaay in Le Chemin de Velours 1902
Other

Martin Luther King, Jr. photo

“Somebody must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate and the chain of evil in the universe. And you do that by love.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1950s, Loving Your Enemies (November 1957)
Context: Somewhere somebody must have some sense. Men must see that force begets force, hate begets hate, toughness begets toughness. And it is all a descending spiral, ultimately ending in destruction for all and everybody. Somebody must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate and the chain of evil in the universe. And you do that by love.

Saddam Hussein photo

“Women make up one half of society. Our society will remain backward and in chains unless its women are liberated, enlightened and educated.”

Saddam Hussein (1937–2006) Iraqi politician and President

" Women: One Half of Our Society http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Women_-_One_half_of_our_society" (1981).
Source: The Revolution and Woman in Iraq
Context: The complete emancipation of women from the ties which held them back in the past, during the ages of despotism and ignorance, is a basic aim of the Party and the Revolution. Women make up one half of society. Our society will remain backward and in chains unless its women are liberated, enlightened and educated.

Clifford D. Simak photo

Related topics