From Earthseed: The Books of the Living

Choose your Leaders
          with wisdom and forethought.

To be led by a coward
          is to be controlled
          by all that the coward fears.

To be led by a fool
          is to be led 
          by the opportunists 
          who control the fool.

To be led by a thief
          is to offer up
          you most precious treasures
          to be stolen.

To be led by a liar
          is to ask 
          to be told lies.

To be led by a tyrant
          is to sell yourself
          and those you love
          into slavery. 


Parable of the Talents
Octavia E. Butler
(c) 1998