The strongest man is never strong enough to be always master, unless he transforms his power into right, and obedience into duty.[Le plus fort n’est jamais assez fort pour être toujours le maître, s’il ne transforme sa force en droit, et l’obéissance en devoir.]
Obedience to a person, institution or power (heteronomous obedience) is submission; it implies the abdication of my autonomy and the acceptance of a foreign will or judgment in place of my own.
When fear rules, obedience is the only survival choice.
The trodden worm turns itself. That is sagacious. It thereby lessens the probability of being again trodden on. In the language of morality: submissiveness.[Der getretene Wurm krümmt sich. So ist es klug. Er verringert damit die Wahrscheinlichkeit, von Neuem getreten zu werden. In der Sprache der Moral: Demuth.]
It is hard to force obedience, without encouraging resentment.
Indeed, freedom and the capacity for disobedience are inseparable; hence any social, political, and religious system which proclaims freedom, yet stamps out disobedience, cannot speak the truth.
If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right.
For centuries kings, priests, feudal lords, industrial bosses and parents have insisted that obedience is a virtue and that disobedience is a vice.
