QuoteProject
He that accepts protection, stipulates obedience.
Samuel Johnson
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Accepting help or protection often comes with the expectation of loyalty or compliance.

This quote suggests that when one accepts help or protection from another, there is an implicit understanding that they will also follow certain rules or guidelines dictated by the protector. It highlights the complex dynamics of power and dependency in relationships, emphasizing that assistance is rarely free of strings attached.

Themes

ProtectionObedienceDependencyRelationshipsResponsibility

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about the dynamics of political alliances, one might reference this quote to illustrate how support can come with obligations.

More from Samuel Johnson

To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
Samuel JohnsonRead
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
Samuel JohnsonRead
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.
Samuel JohnsonRead
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
Samuel JohnsonRead
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.
Samuel JohnsonRead
A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.
Samuel JohnsonRead

Similar quotes

From where does this "I" arise? Seek for it within; it then vanishes. This is the pursuit of wisdom. When the mind unceasingly investigates its own nature, it transpires that there is no such thing as mind. This is the direct path for all. The mind is merely thoughts. Of all thoughts the thought "I" is the root.
Ramana MaharshiRead
What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.
Albert PikeRead
Man has made remarkable strides in conquering outer space, but how futile have been his efforts in conquering inner space- the space in our hearts and minds of men.
Thomas S. MonsonRead
To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, god, are immaterial, is to say they are nothings, or that there is no god, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise: but I believe I am supported in my creed of materialism by Locke, Tracy, and Stewart. At what age of the Christian church this heresy of immaterialism, this masked atheism, crept in, I do not know. But heresy it certainly is.
Thomas JeffersonRead
No one ever died from smoking marijuana, but millions of people have died by believing politicians.
Harry BrowneRead
To give a causal explanation of an event means to deduce a statement which describes it, using as premises of the deduction one or more universal laws, together with certain singular statements, the initial conditions ... We have thus two different kinds of statement, both of which are necessary ingredients of a complete causal explanation.
Karl PopperRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.