I love the old way best, the simple way of poison, where we too are strong as men.
EuripidesRead
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of freedom of expression and the oppression faced when one cannot voice their thoughts.
Euripides highlights the grave situation where individuals are denied the fundamental right to express their thoughts and opinions. This oppression acts as a form of slavery, diminishing one's autonomy and individuality, and reflects a critical view of societal constraints on free speech, thereby advocating for the inherent value of speaking one's mind openly.
Themes
FreedomExpressionOppressionThoughtAutonomy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of free speech in democratic societies.
More from Euripides
All quotes →Mankind . . . possesses two supreme blessings. First of these is the goddess Demeter, or Earth whichever name you choose to call her by. It was she who gave to man his nourishment of grain. But after her there came the son of Semele, who matched her present by inventing liquid wine as his gift to man. For filled with that good gift, suffering mankind forgets its grief; from it comes sleep; with it oblivion of the troubles of the day. There is no other medicine for misery.
EuripidesRead
Money is far more persuasive than logical arguments.
EuripidesRead
Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first makes mad.
EuripidesRead
Who then will dare to say I'm weak or timid? No, they'll say I'm loyal as a friend, ruthless as a foe, so much like a hero destined for glory.
EuripidesRead
Waste not fresh tears over old griefs.
EuripidesRead
Similar quotes
Time cures you first, and then it kills you.
Barbara KingsolverRead
Human beings are too important to be treated as mere symptoms of the past. They have a value which is independent of any temporal process──which is eternal, and must be felt for its own sake.
Lytton StracheyRead
Into the nothingness of scorn and noise, Into the living sea of waking dreams, Where there is neither sense of life or joys, But the vast shipwreck of my life's esteems; And e'en the dearest--that I love the best-- Are strange--nay, rather stranger than the rest.
John ClareRead
Farmers everywhere provide bread for all humanity, but it is Christ alone who is the bread of life...Even if all the physical hunger of the world were satisfied, even if everyone who is hungry were fed by his or her own labor or by the generosity of others, the deepest hunger of man would still exist...Therefore, I say, Come, all of you, to Christ. He is the bread of life. Come to Christ and you will never be hungry again.
Pope John Paul IiRead
Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love.
George Bernard ShawRead
Curtailment of free speech is rationalized on grounds that a more compelling American tradition forbids criticism of the government when the nation is at war... Nothing can be more destructive of our fundamental democratic traditions than the vicious effort to silence dissenters.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Read