Personal Army Quotes

“The excessive increase of anything often causes a reaction in the opposite direction.... The excess of liberty, whether in states or individuals, seems only to pass into slavery... and the most aggravated form of tyranny arises out of the most extreme form of liberty. When liberty becomes license, dictatorship is near. The rich, afraid that democracy will bleed them, conspire to overthrow it; or some enterprising individual seizes power, promises everything to the poor, surrounds himself with a personal army, kills first his enemies and then his friends "until he has made a purgation of the state," and establishes a dictatorship. In such a conflict of extremes the philosopher who preaches moderation and mutual understanding is like "a man fallen among wild beasts"; if he is wise he will "retire under the shelter of a wall while the hurrying wind and the storm go by.”
― Will Durant, The Life of Greece