Daily Inspiration Quote by Philip Massinger

Power, Massinger suggests, is less a throne than a temperament. "He that would govern others, first should be Master of himself" lands with the tidy snap of stagecraft: a moral that sounds obvious until you picture the characters who most crave authority. As a playwright working in early Stuart England, Massinger watched public order and private appetite collide in real time. Courts preached restraint while seething with faction; sermons lauded discipline while patronage rewarded impulse. The line reads like a rebuke aimed at that hypocrisy, delivered in the clean, quotable form that drama loves because it can sting without naming names.

The intent is didactic, but not naïve. "Master" does double duty: it’s self-control, yes, but also a reminder that rule is always about mastery and submission, even when dressed up as stewardship. Massinger quietly shifts the burden of legitimacy away from bloodline or office and onto character. That’s subversive in a world where governance is inherited, not earned.

The subtext is psychological: the tyrant is often just an undisciplined person with a larger stage. If you cannot govern anger, greed, lust, vanity, you will govern through them - turning policy into mood, justice into vengeance, leadership into spectacle. The line also flatters the audience’s ethical self-image, inviting viewers to judge rulers by inward evidence rather than outward ceremony.

As theatre, it works because it’s a weapon that can be wielded in multiple directions: a warning to would-be rulers, a standard for audiences to measure them against, and a moral alibi for the playwright, who can claim he’s only preaching virtue while he’s really critiquing power.