Soyez résolus à ne plus servir, et vous voilà libres. Je ne
vous demande pas de le pousser, de l’ébranler, mais
seulement de ne plus le soutenir, et vous le verrez,
tel un grand colosse dont on a brisé la base,
fondre sous son poids et se rompre.
Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces.
Étienne de La Boétie, Discourse on Voluntary Servitude (1548).