#burden

His August Majesty chided the bureaucrats for failing to understand a simple principle: the principle of the second bag. Because the people never revolt just because they have to carry a heavy load, or because of exploitation. They don't know life without exploitation, they don't even know that such a life exists. How can they desire what they cannot imagine? The people will rvolt only when, in a single movement, someone tries to throw a second burden, a second heavy bag, onto their backs. The peasant will fall face down into the mud - and then spring up and grab an ax. He'll grab an ax, my gracious sir, not because he simply can't sustain this new burden - he could carry it - he will rise because he feels that, in throwing the second burden onto his back suddenly and stealthily, you have tried to cheat him, you have treated him like an unthinking animal, you have trampled what remains of his already strangled dignity, taken him for an idiot who doesn't see, feel, or understand. A man doesn't seize an ax in defense of his wallet, but in defense of his dignity, and that, dear sir, is why His Majesty scolded the clerks. For their own convenience and vanity, instead of adding the burden bit by bit, in little bags, they tried to heave a whole big sack on at once. ↗

— Ryszard Kapuściński

#dignity #inequality #poor #revolt #revolution

Leadership consists not in degrees of technique but in traits of character; it requires moral rather than athletic or intellectual effort, and it imposes on both leader and follower alike the burdens of self-restraint. ↗

— Lewis H. Lapham

#athletic #both #burdens #character #consists

War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits. ↗

— James Madison

#burdens #declared #fruits #government #instead

Near-term deficits are temporary and manageable if - and only if - we keep spending in check, the tax burden low and the economy growing. ↗

— Jim Nussle

#check #deficits #economy #growing #keep

If NASA is to reach beyond the Moon and someday reach Mars, it must be relieved of the burden of launching people and cargo to low earth orbit. To do that, we must invest more in commercial spaceflight. ↗

— Bill Nye

#burden #cargo #commercial #earth #invest

It puts the provider in a situation of looking for ways to have someone else pick up a piece of the cost. As a result, every customer who has insurance ends up paying a 'hidden premium.' It simply adds to the health care cost burden. ↗

— David Obey

#burden #care #cost #customer #else

He who is of calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden. ↗

— Plato

#burden #calm #disposition #equally #feel

Being Elvis Presley's daughter is a whole lot of pressure. It's been a constant burden in my life. ↗

— Lisa Marie Presley

#being #burden #constant #daughter #elvis

That is why I strongly believe we should working in Congress to make America a better place to run a business by reducing the costly burdens of bureaucracy and red tape. ↗

— Michael K. Simpson

#believe #better #better place #burdens #bureaucracy

Our country, the United States of America, may be the world's largest economy and the world's only superpower, but we stretch ourselves dangerously thin by taking on commitments like Iraq with only a motley band of allies to share the burden. ↗

— John Spratt

#america #band #burden #commitments #country