Apophthegmata Laconica

Plutarch

Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. III. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1931 (printing).

In answer to a man who raised the question how anyone could possibly rule in safety without the protection of a bodyguard, he said, If one rules his subjects as fathers rule their sons. [*](Cf. Homer, Od. ii. 47.)