Presidents, Kings, Tyrants, & Despots

John Milton laments the case of a people who won their liberty "in the field" but who then foolishly "ran their necks again into the yoke" of tyranny (1660)

John Milton

Found in: The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth

That a nation should be so valorous and courageous to win their liberty in the field, and when they have won it, should be so heartless and unwise in their counsels, as not to know how to use it, value it, what to do with it, or with themselves; but after ten or twelve years' prosperous war and contestation with tyranny, basely and besottedly to run their necks again into the yoke which they have broken, and prostrate all the fruits of their victory for nought at the feet of the vanquished...