"This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector"
About this Quote
Tyranny doesn’t arrive wearing a crown; it shows up holding a shield. Plato’s line is a neat piece of political pessimism disguised as a warning label: the tyrant’s origin story isn’t conquest, it’s care. The “protector” is the crucial disguise because it recruits consent. People don’t usually hand power to someone who announces domination; they hand it to someone who promises safety, stability, revenge on elites, or relief from chaos.
The phrasing “this and no other” is prosecutorial. Plato isn’t offering one risk among many; he’s insisting on a pattern, a mechanism. That certainty matters because it frames tyranny less as a freak accident and more as a predictable outcome when a society confuses guardianship with ownership. Protection, in this subtext, is an emotional economy: fear is the currency, and the protector learns to profit by expanding the sense of threat. Once the public accepts exceptional authority as the price of security, the exception starts to define the rule.
Context sharpens the edge. In the Republic, Plato sketches a regime-cycle where democracy’s appetites and factionalism create openings for a charismatic champion. The protector claims to defend “the people,” then demands personal loyalty, purges rivals, and normalizes coercion in the name of order. Plato’s real target isn’t just the tyrant; it’s the crowd’s readiness to outsource judgment. The line works because it flips a comforting narrative: the danger isn’t the enemy at the gates, it’s the savior we invite in.
The phrasing “this and no other” is prosecutorial. Plato isn’t offering one risk among many; he’s insisting on a pattern, a mechanism. That certainty matters because it frames tyranny less as a freak accident and more as a predictable outcome when a society confuses guardianship with ownership. Protection, in this subtext, is an emotional economy: fear is the currency, and the protector learns to profit by expanding the sense of threat. Once the public accepts exceptional authority as the price of security, the exception starts to define the rule.
Context sharpens the edge. In the Republic, Plato sketches a regime-cycle where democracy’s appetites and factionalism create openings for a charismatic champion. The protector claims to defend “the people,” then demands personal loyalty, purges rivals, and normalizes coercion in the name of order. Plato’s real target isn’t just the tyrant; it’s the crowd’s readiness to outsource judgment. The line works because it flips a comforting narrative: the danger isn’t the enemy at the gates, it’s the savior we invite in.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Source | Plato, Republic, Book VIII — passage on the origin of the tyrant (English translations, e.g. Jowett/Shorey). See the section on the rise of the tyrant in Book 8. |
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