“There are always a few, better endowed than others, who feel the weight of the yoke and cannot restrain themselves from attempting to shake it off… These are in fact the men who, possessed of clear minds and far-sighted spirit, are not satisfied, like the brutish mass, to see only what is at their feet, but rather look about them, behind and before, and even recall the things of the past in order to judge those of the future, and compare both with their present condition. These are the ones who, having good minds of their own, have further trained them by study and learning. Even if liberty had entirely perished from the earth, such men would reinvent it. For them slavery has no satisfactions, no matter how well disguised.”

-Etienne de la Boetie (’The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude’)