The counselor's dilemma

Those who altogether exceed the bounds of right government and wholly refuse to proceed in its tracks, and who warn their counsellor to leave the government alone and not disturb it, on pain of death if he does disturb it, while ordering him to advise as to how all that contributes to their desires and appetites may most easily and quickly be secured for ever and ever—then, in such a case, I should esteem unmanly the man who continued to engage in counsels of this kind. - Plato.  Letter 7.331a

Image:  Patinated plaster sculpture of Seneca by Mateo Inurria (1894-1895) at the Museum of Fine Arts in Cordoba, Spain courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor José Luis Filpo Cabana.