Any excuse will serve a tyrant… Aesop Quotes

Any excuse will serve a tyrant.

- Aesop -

@ashiqsir A Wolf, meeting with a Lamb astray from the fold, decided not to attack the lamb, but to find some reason to justify to the Lamb why the Wolf had the right to eat him. So the Wolf said: “Sir Lamb, last year you greatly insulted me.” “But,” bleated the Lamb mournfully, “I was not born last year!” Then the Wolf said, “You feed in my pasture.” “No, good sir,” replied the Lamb, “I have not yet tasted grass.” Again the Wolf said, “You drink water from my well.” “No,” exclaimed the Lamb, “I never yet drank water, for as yet my mother’s milk is both food and drink to me.” Upon which the Wolf seized the Lamb and ate him up, saying, “Well! I won’t remain supperless, even though you refute every one of my accusations.” The “any excuse” part of the phrase means that the tyrant will take the smallest justification to do what he was planning to do anyway. There is usually some pretence offered as to “why” someone acts in some way, when the real reason for the deed is not acceptable to most honest and good people. That is the point of the phrase. As an example, Roman Emperor Nero (first century AD) blamed the Christians for burning down Rome when he himself did it to make room for a palace he was planning. When the fire got out of control the populace was quite angry. Nero needed someone to blame. He picked the new Jewish sect called “Christians” because they were an easy target. They were different and people already regarded them with suspicion. That's an example of a tyrant using “any excuse” to serve his purpose. It doesn't matter how poor or unbelievable the excuse is.