--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Where once a tyrant had to wish that his…" description: "\"Where once a tyrant had to wish that his subjects had but one common neck that he might strangle them all at once, all he has to do now is to 'educate ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/024/richard-mitchell-18161_common_where-once-a-tyrant-had-to-wish-that-his_1516603.png" --- # Where once a tyrant had to wish that his subjects had but… ![“Where once a tyrant had to wish that his subjects had but one common neck that he might strangle them all at once, all he has to do now is to 'educate the people' so that they will have but one common mind to delude.” quote by Richard Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/024/richard-mitchell-18161_common_where-once-a-tyrant-had-to-wish-that-his_1516603.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/024/richard-mitchell-18161_common_where-once-a-tyrant-had-to-wish-that-his_1516603.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/024/richard-mitchell-18161_common_where-once-a-tyrant-had-to-wish-that-his_1516603.png) > “Where once a tyrant had to wish that his subjects had but one common neck that he might strangle them all at once, all he has to do now is to 'educate the people' so that they will have but one common mind to delude.” [Richard Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-mitchell/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The quote warns that education can become a tool for uniform thought, turning freedom into a single, controlled mindset. **In simple terms:** Education can create a single, controlling mindset. Key Takeaway Guard critical thinking against conformity. Themes education control freedom mindset politics Mood cautious critical thoughtful Type analytical philosophical warning When to use this quote - school curricula - media consumption - political discourse - workplace training Key Concepts conformity authoritarianism critical thinking Questions to Reflect On - What ways can education foster independent thought? - How can we balance shared knowledge with individuality? A Different Perspective It assumes all education is manipulative, ignoring empowering aspects. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Common](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/common/) [Common Mind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/common-mind-632601/) [Educate](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/educate/) [Educate People](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/educate-people-354783/) [Might](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/might/) [Mind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mind/) [Mind Delude](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mind-delude-4825559/) [Necks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/necks/) [People](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/people/) [Psychology](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/psychology/) [School](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/school/) [Schools and education](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/schools-and-education/) [Strangle Educate](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/strangle-educate-5594947/) [Subjects](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/subjects/) [Tyranny](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/tyranny/) [Tyrant Wish](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/tyrant-wish-5594946/) [Tyrants](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/tyrants/) [Wish](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wish/) ## Related quotes > [Delusions are states of mind which, when they arise within our mental continuum, leave us disturbed, confused and unhappy. 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The facts of the twentieth century…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charlotte-perkins-gilman/at-any-given-period-in-history-the-ideas-of-the-common-mind-are-found/) [Charlotte Perkins Gilman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charlotte-perkins-gilman/) > [As to the pure all things are pure, so the common mind sees far more vulgarity in others than the mind developed in genuine…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-macdonald/as-to-the-pure-all-things-are-pure-so-the-common-mind-sees-far-more/) [George MacDonald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-macdonald/) > [Education forms the common mind. Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-pope/education-forms-the-common-mind-just-as-the-twig-is-bent-the-tree-s/) [Alexander Pope](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-pope/) > [As education becomes inclusive, introspective, cosmic, promoting whole populations to power and privilege, it enthrones a vast, invisible, personal rule over the common mind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amos-bronson-alcott/as-education-becomes-inclusive-introspective-cosmic-promoting-whole/) [Amos Bronson Alcott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amos-bronson-alcott/) > [Anyone who stops learning is old — whether this happens at twenty or at eighty. Anyone who keeps on learning not only remains young…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-ford/anyone-who-stops-learning-is-old-whether-this-happens-at-twenty-or-at/) [Henry Ford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-ford/) > [Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/every-time-you-stop-a-school-you-will-have-to-build-a-jail/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [I remember that I was never able to get along at school. I was at the foot of the class.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-a-edison/i-remember-that-i-was-never-able-to-get-along-at-school-i-was-at-the/) [Thomas A. Edison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-a-edison/) > [The more subsidized it is, the less free it is. What is known as 'free education' is the least free of all, for it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-chodorov/the-more-subsidized-it-is-the-less-free-it-is-what-is-known-as-free/) [Frank Chodorov](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-chodorov/) ## More by Richard Mitchell > [“That's how ideas and the institutions they generate come to be in the first place. It is in strings of words that we make…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-mitchell/that-s-how-ideas-and-the-institutions-they-generate-come-to-be-in-the/) [Richard Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-mitchell/) > [Some minds, at some point, discover that they can not make sense of their own predications without attention to grammar, although they do not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-mitchell/some-minds-at-some-point-discover-that-they-can-not-make-sense-of/) [Richard Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-mitchell/) > [His jargon conceals, from him, but not from us, the deep, empty hole in his mind. 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The meditations are not clear to us until the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-mitchell/a-line-runs-from-the-meditations-of-the-heart-to-the-words-of-the/) [Richard Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-mitchell/) > [“His prose, like the thinking it reveals, is full of cloudy suggestions of something beyond the range of mere cognition. He has been given…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-mitchell/his-prose-like-the-thinking-it-reveals-is-full-of-cloudy-suggestions/) [Richard Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-mitchell/) > [If you cannot be the master of your language, you must be its slave. If you cannot examine your thoughts, you have no choice…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-mitchell/if-you-cannot-be-the-master-of-your-language-you-must-be-its-slave-if/) [Richard Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-mitchell/) > [You can shoot the tiger, or stay out of his way, but you cannot pronounce him a vegetarian.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-mitchell/you-can-shoot-the-tiger-or-stay-out-of-his-way-but-you-cannot/) [Richard Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-mitchell/) > [People who cannot put strings of sentences together in good order cannot think. 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Holland](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeffrey-r-holland/) > [Our times demand the declaration of the world's resources as the common heritage of all people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jacque-fresco/our-times-demand-the-declaration-of-the-world-s-resources-as-the/) [Jacque Fresco](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jacque-fresco/) > [ Neither Italian fascism nor German national "socialism" have anything in common with such a \[Soviet socialistic\] society, primarily because private ownership of factories, plants,… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-stalin/neither-italian-fascism-nor-german-national-socialism-have-anything/) [Joseph Stalin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-stalin/) > [When you have a cavity in your tooth and you let it get worse, eventually you have to get a root canal. 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