“The Renaissance was a time of mercenary soldiers, ours is a time of mercenary labor.”

— Eric Hoffer

Before the Sabbath (1979)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The Renaissance was a time of mercenary soldiers, ours is a time of mercenary labor." by Eric Hoffer?

Eric Hoffer 240

American philosopher 1898–1983

Related quotes

“Looters become looted, while time and tide make us mercenaries all.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

“A mercenary who can’t honor his contract when it’s rough as well as smooth is a thug, not a soldier.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Chapter 13 (pp. 221-222) Vorkosigan Saga, The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)

“It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. In its service new mercenaries sought to regiment the people, their labor, and their property.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) 32nd President of the United States

1930s, Speech to the Democratic National Convention (1936)
Context: It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. In its service new mercenaries sought to regiment the people, their labor, and their property. And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man.

“I am sure that university life would be better, both intellectually and morally, if most university students had temporary childless marriages. This would afford a solution to the sexual urge neither restless nor surreptitious, neither mercenary nor casual, and of such a nature that it need not take up time which ought to be given to work.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

"Sex in Education", p. 119-120
1930s, Education and the Social Order (1932)

“What I do for a living is somewhat like mercenary prostitution… I spend a lot of energy trying to find games to bring to alternate platforms, like Linux and MacOS, and in my free time, I work on various open source projects, and other freebies like that… so I guess I'm a hooker with a heart of gold, sorta.”

Ryan C. Gordon (1978) Computer programmer

Quoted in Michael Larabel, "An Interview with Ryan C. Gordon" http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=203&num=1 Phoronix (2003-09-08)

“It is not necessarily for mercenary soldiers to know what is going on. It is sufficient for them to do the job for which they have taken the gold. That had been drummed into me from the moment I enlisted. There is neither right nor wrong, neither good nor evil, only our side and theirs. The honor of the company lies within, directed one brother toward another. Without, honor lies only in keeping faith with the sponsor.”

Glen Cook book Shadow Games

Source: Shadow Games (1989), Chapter 28, “Back to Scouting” (p. 148)

“In my view, if there's going to be an army, I think it ought to be a citizens' army. Now, here I do agree with some people, the top brass, they don't want a citizens' army. They want a mercenary army, what we call a volunteer army. A mercenary army of the disadvantaged. And in fact, in the Vietnam War, the U. S. military realized, they had made a very bad mistake. I mean, for the first time I think ever in the history of European imperialism, including us, they had used a citizens' army to fight a vicious, brutal, colonial war, and civilians just cannot do that kind of a thing. For that, you need the French Foreign Legion, the Gurkhas or something like that. Every predecessor has used mercenaries, often drawn from the country that they're attacking, like England ran India with Indian mercenaries. You take them from one place and send them to kill people in the other place. That's the standard way to run imperial wars. They're just too brutal and violent and murderous. Civilians are not going to be able to do it for very long. What happened was, the army started falling apart. One of the reasons that the army was withdrawn was because the top military wanted it out of there. They were afraid they were not going to have an army anymore. Soldiers were fragging officers. The whole thing was falling apart. They were on drugs. And that's why I think that they're not going to have a draft. That's why I'm in favor of it. If there's going to be an army that will fight brutal, colonial wars… it ought to be a citizens' army so that the attitudes of the society are reflected in the military.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Quotes 2000s, 2004, 25th Anniversary of Coalition for Peace Action, 2004

“It will be a thousand years before Grant's character is fully appreciated. Grant is the greatest soldier of our time if not all time.”

William T. Sherman (1820–1891) American General, businessman, educator, and author.

On Ulysses S. Grant http://www.granthomepage.com/grantgeneral.htm (1885), as quoted in Grant's Final Victory: Ulysses S. Grant's Heroic Last Year (2011) http://books.google.com/books?id=MZ2BiGC3gHwC&pg=PR8&lpg=PR8&dq=sherman+%22It+will+be+a+thousand+years+before+Grant's+character+is+fully+appreciated%22&source=bl&ots=YddNqD14gr&sig=lO5z_VXQoQ5iY_eSJGot5qHy_JM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=vF65UsC5L-XIsASH6YDICw&ved=0CD0Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false, by Charles Bracelen Flood.
1880s, 1885
Context: It will be a thousand years before Grant's character is fully appreciated. Grant is the greatest soldier of our time if not all time... he fixes in his mind what is the true objective and abandons all minor ones. He dismisses all possibility of defeat. He believes in himself and in victory. If his plans go wrong he is never disconcerted but promptly devises a new one and is sure to win in the end. Grant more nearly impersonated the American character of 1861-65 than any other living man. Therefore he will stand as the typical hero of the great Civil War in America.

“A Time For Prayer

"In times of war and not before,
God and the soldier we adore.
But in times of peace and all things righted,
God is forgotten and the soldier slighted."

-Rudyard Kipling”

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist

“Implosion is no invention in the conventional sense, but rather the renaissance of ancient knowledge, lost over the course of time.”

Viktor Schauberger (1885–1958) austrian philosopher and inventor

Implosion Magazine, No. 83, p. 16 (Callum Coats: Energy Evolution (2000))
Implosion Magazine

“The Renaissance was a time of mercenary soldiers, ours is a time of mercenary labor.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Eric Hoffer 240

Related quotes

Related topics