Poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, Two Quotes by D.C. Quillan Stone

Nature rejects the monarch, not the man;
The subject, not the citizen; for kings
And subjects, mutual foes, forever play
A losing game into each other's hands,
Whose stakes are vice and misery. The man
Of virtuous soul commands not, nor obeys.
Power, like a desolating pestilence,
Pollutes whate'er it touches; and obedience,
Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth,
Makes slaves of men, and of the human frame
A mechanized automaton.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

Note:
Along a somewhat similar theme, two quotes from my 10th book.

Come let us Reason. Peace is always a Choice.

Study, Ponder, Labor, till last Breath.