Treason is a charge invented by winners as an excuse for hanging the losers.
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Franklin suggests that treason is often a label used by victors to punish the defeated rather than an objective crime.
- In plain terms
- Winners call losers traitors to justify punishing them.
- What can you take from it?
- Legal labels like treason often depend on who wins the conflict.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Who defines crime?
- Does the end justify the means?
Another view
This view ignores cases where treason is objectively harmful to a state.
More from Benjamin Franklin
We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.
Permalink to quote #28 Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.
Permalink to quote #30 Remember me affectionately to good Dr. Price and to the honest heretic Dr. Priestly. I do not call him honest by way of distinction; for I think all the hereti…
Permalink to quote #27
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