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About this quote

What does it mean?
True freedom in modern times requires holding authority.
In plain terms
To be free today, you need power or authority.
What can you take from it?
Seek authority if you want genuine freedom.

Where it applies

  • career planning
  • leadership roles
  • personal strategy

Putting it to work

  • seek leadership roles
  • gain influence
  • understand power dynamics

Questions to consider

  • What kind of freedom do you seek?
  • Is power necessary for liberty?

Another view

Freedom can be found in personal autonomy without formal authority.

More from Ernest Renan

  1. As a rule, all heroism is due to a lack of reflection, and thus it is necessary to maintain a mass of imbeciles. If they once understand themselves the ruling …

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  2. He whom God has touched will always be a being apart: he is, whatever he may do, a stranger among men; he is marked by a sign.

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  3. In morals, truth is but little prized when it is a mere sentiment, and only attains its full value when realized in the world as fact.

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