>>In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet, and say to us, "Make us your slaves, but feed us."
-- The Grand Inquisitor
Fyodor Dostoevsky
I know it's popular to attribute that quotation to Dostoevsky, but actually that version is from Huxley's "Brave New World Revisited". Here's Dostoevsky's original:
"No science will ever give them bread so long as they remain free, so long as they refuse to lay that freedom at our feet, and say: "Enslave, but feed us!" That day must come when men will understand that freedom and daily bread enough to satisfy all are unthinkable and can never be had together, as men will never be able to fairly divide the two among themselves. And they will also learn that they can never be free, for they are weak, vicious, miserable nonentities born wicked and rebellious."
Sorry, couldn't resist! Take it in the spirit with which it is intended. ;-)
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1