“Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant.”
August 22
Debates in the Federal Convention (1787)
Context: Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of heaven on a Country. As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes & effects providence punishes national sins, by national calamities.
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George Mason 54
American delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional … 1725–1792Related quotes
Speech in the House of Commons (18 November, 1783). Compare: "And with necessity, / The tyrant's plea, / excus'd his devilish deeds", John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book iv, line 393.
Il giorno in cui i contadini saranno educati nel vero, i tiranni e gli schiavi saranno impossibili sulla terra.
Alla Società del Tiro in Ganzo, Caprera, 29 August 1864, in Scritti politici e militari, ricordi e pensieri inediti, p. 356.
“Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves.”
“This to a tyrant master sold
His native land for cursed gold.”
Source: Translations, The Aeneid of Virgil (1866), Book VI, p. 215
“Better wicked Lucifer for a master, thought I, than a pious Tyrant!”
Source: The City in the Autumn Stars (1986), Chapter 13 (p. 361)