Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
The quote compares Indian complaints of English enslavement to drunkards blaming alcohol, suggesting dependence on oppression.
In plain terms
It likens blaming the English to drunkards blaming alcohol.
What can you take from it?
Recognize dependence on oppressive systems.

Where it applies

  • addiction counseling
  • colonial critique
  • social activism

Putting it to work

  • address root causes
  • promote self‑reliance

Questions to consider

  • How does dependence perpetuate oppression?
  • What alternatives exist?

Another view

Analogy may be offensive to some readers.

More from Leo Tolstoy

  1. What does it mean that thirty thousand men, not athletes but rather weak and ordinary people, have subdued two hundred million vigorous, clever, capable, and f…

    Permalink to quote #90
  2. If the people of India are enslaved by violence it is only because they themselves live and have lived by violence, and do not recognize the eternal law of lov…

    Permalink to quote #92
  3. Such are the scientific justifications of the principle of coercion. They are not merely weak but absolutely invalid, yet they are so much needed by those who …

    Permalink to quote #89

Related quotes

  1. Perhaps you will find me more agreeable.

    Queen of Romania MarieQueen of Romania Marie quote #2
  2. It has always been my temptation to put myself in other people's shoes: even into a horse's shoes as he strains before the heavy dray; into a ballerina's point…

    Diana CooperDiana Cooper quote #2
  3. Racism is always a symptom of a small mind. It is born from man's inability to raise himself from the realm of animals and consciously refuse the temptations o…

    Derek R. AudetteDerek R. Audette quote #3