Étienne de La Boétie
Young magistrate and friend of Montaigne: at about eighteen he asks why millions of people serve one tyrant, and answers that it is they who support him.
Life
French magistrate and writer (Sarlat 1530 - Germignan 1563), a councillor in the parliament of Bordeaux and a close friend of Montaigne. Around the age of eighteen he wrote the Discourse on Voluntary Servitude, published after his death. He asks why whole peoples obey a single man, and answers that custom and the complicity of those who profit from him sustain him.
Main works
Argues that a tyrant has only the power his subjects leave him (written around 1548, published in part in 1574 and in full in 1576).
In his own words
« Be resolved to serve no more, and you are free. »
« He who masters you so much has only two eyes, only two hands, only one body »
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceA Catholic, he calls nature the "minister of God" who made us free and equal.
La Boétie, Discours de la servitude volontaire (c. 1548)
Liberty and equality are given by nature and bind rulers, whatever human laws say.
La Boétie, Discours de la servitude volontaire (c. 1548)
Nature made us free and equal, and we are born with a love of liberty; servitude is a bad habit.
La Boétie, Discours de la servitude volontaire (c. 1548)