If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it.
Julius CaesarRead
War gives the right to the conquerors to impose any condition they please upon the vanquished.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the nature of power dynamics in war, highlighting how victors can dictate terms to the defeated.
In this quote, Julius Caesar emphasizes the harsh realities of warfare and its aftermath, suggesting that the victors in a conflict can impose their will on the losers without regard for justice or fairness. This perspective on conquest underscores the often brutal and arbitrary nature of power, showcasing how morality can be overshadowed by might, as the conqueror creates conditions and rules for the conquered, regardless of their previous rights or claims.
Themes
WarPowerConquestVictorMoralityConditions
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a history class to discuss the implications of military victories throughout history.
More from Julius Caesar
All quotes →I have always reckoned the dignity of the republic of first importance and preferable to life.
Julius CaesarRead
As a rule, men worry more about what they can't see than about what they can.
Julius CaesarRead
All bad precedents begin as justifiable measures.
Julius CaesarRead
No one is so brave that he is not disturbed by something unexpected.
Julius CaesarRead
What we wish, we readily believe, and what we ourselves think, we imagine others think also.
Julius CaesarRead
Similar quotes
we follow One who stood and wept at the grave of Lazarus-not surely, because He was grieved that Mary and Martha wept, and sorrowed for their lack of faith (though some thus interpret) but because death, the punishment of sin, is even more horrible in his eyes than in ours.
C. S. LewisRead
I'm not sure if I could tell the difference—between just staring into space and thinking. We're usually thinking all the time, aren't we? Not that we live in order to think, but the opposite isn't true either—that we think in order to live. I believe, contrary to Descartes, that we sometimes think in order not to be. Staring into space might unintentionally have the opposite effect.
Haruki MurakamiRead
The crisis of children having children has been eclipsed by the greater crisis of children killing children.
Marian Wright EdelmanRead
When we have passed a certain age, the soul of the child that we were and the souls of the dead from whom we sprang come and shower upon us their riches and their spells, asking to be allowed to contribute to the new emotions which we feel and in which, erasing their former image, we recast them in an original creation.
Marcel ProustRead
I believed that there was a God because I was told it by my grandmother and later by other adults. But when I found that I knew not only that there was God but that I was a child of God, when I understood that, when I comprehended that, more than that, when I internalized that, ingested that, I became courageous.
Maya AngelouRead
He that falls into sin is a man; that grieves at it, is a saint; that boasteth of it, is a devil.
Thomas FullerRead