Secrets of Mind and Reality - MindReality.com

Groups exhibit a docile respect for force, and are but slightly impressed by kindness, which for them is scarcely other than a form of weakness. Their sympathies have never been bestowed on easy-going masters, but on tyrants who vigorously oppressed them. It is to these latter that they always erect the loftiest statues. They trample on the despot whom they have stripped of his power, but it’s only because having lost his strength, he is now one of the weak who are to be despised and not to be feared.

The type of hero dear to groups will always have the semblance of a Caesar. His insignia attracts them, his authority overawes them, and his sword instills them with fear. A group is always ready to revolt against a feeble, and to bow down servilely before a strong authority. Should the strength of an authority be intermittent, the group, always obedient to its extreme sentiments, passes alternately from anarchy to servitude, and from servitude to anarchy. The strongest leaders will use strongest authority.