“[M]ore than they wanted freedom, the Athenians wanted security. Yet they lost everything-security, comfort, and freedom. This was because they wanted not to give to society, but for society to give to them. The freedom they were seeking was freedom from responsibility. It is no wonder, then, that they ceased to be free. In the modern world, we should recall the Athenians' dire fate whenever we confront demands for increased state paternalism.”
![“[M]ore than they wanted freedom, the Athenians wanted security. Yet they lost everything-security, comfort, and freedom. This was because they wanted not to give to society, but for society to give to them. The freedom they were seeking was freedom from responsibility. It is no wonder, then, that…” quote by Margaret Thatcher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/12b/margaret-thatcher-463_athenians_m-ore-than-they-wanted-freedom-the-athen_3205501.jpg)
![“...for the interests of rulers require that their subjects should be poor in spirit, and that there should be no strong bond of friendship or society among them, which love, above all other motives, is likely to inspire, as our Athenian tyrants learned by experience; for... [love] had a strength…” quote by Plato](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f26/plato-103_friendship_for-the-interests-of-rulers-require-that_127166.jpg)
![“[When asked how it felt to be a female prime minister:] I don't know: I've never experienced the alternative.” quote by Margaret Thatcher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/324/margaret-thatcher-463_alternatives_when-asked-how-it-felt-to-be-a-female-pr_15081.jpg)
![“Everyone, including the Athenians [...] are right to accept advice from anyone, since it is incumbent on everyone to share in that sort of excellence, or else there can be no city at all.” quote by Protagoras](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/842/protagoras-29073_accepting_everyone-including-the-athenians-are-rig_379015.jpg)
![“It was about that time [415 BCE] that the poet Diagoras of Melos was proscribed for atheism, he having declared that the non-punishment of a certain act of iniquity proved that there were no gods. It has been surmised, with some reason, that the iniquity in question was the slaughter of the…” quote by J. M. Robertson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/21f/j-m-robertson-95682_alcibiades_it-was-about-that-time-415-bce-that-the_812164.jpg)
