Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Abraham Lincoln was no Socrates, pretending that a man can be neither slave nor master

 "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy."

If a man is not a master of himself, however, he will be a slave . . . to his passions, which include the desire to rule others.

In The War Between The States we exchanged the one tyranny over the Negro for a still more universal and thorough-going tyranny of the self.

The only free man who exists is the one who can say No to himself.