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.
“The public is a ferocious beast: one must chain it up or flee from it.”
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.
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Voltaire 167
French writer, historian, and philosopher 1694–1778Related quotes
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.
“Every one must be supposed to be cognizant of a public law.”
Smith v. Beadnell (1807), 1 Camp. 33.
Brown : The Last Discovery of America (2003)
Chains (1962), Co-written with Gerry Goffin, first performed by The Cookies
Song lyrics, Singles
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]
“Art must break the chains, all rules and formulas.”
L'Idealisme esaay in Le Chemin de Velours 1902
Other
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.
" 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.