From Plutarch's Lives
...[A]mbitious men, who embrace the image and not the reality of virtue, produce nothing but ugly deeds. To become the people's leaders, they make themselves the slaves of public opinion. Steered by the applause of the multitude, they are really not leaders at all, no matter what title they claim. The wise and virtuous man has no need at all of glory, except inasmuch as it eases his way to action by greater trust. ...[W]hen the passion for popularity goes too far, it is dangerous in all men, and in the government it is utterly destructive. Those with power and authority are carried away into a sort of insanity, and they begin to think that glory is the cause, and not the effect, of goodness. Such men should tell the people, "I can't be both your leader and your slave," just as Phocion told Antipater, "I can't be both your flunky and your friend."
Leaders should learn from the snake in the fable: The tail complained to the head that, although the tail constituted a majority of the snake, the tail never got a turn to decide on its path. Taking the lead, the tail soon blundered into trouble, and the head suffered along with it -- justly punished for following, contrary to Nature, a guide without eyes or brains. Such has been the fate of many, who, submitting to be guided by the caprice of an uninformed and unreasoning multitude, could neither prevent, nor escape, the confusion and disaster that followed. So much for the glory that depends on the voice of large numbers.
