Oppressors need not be meek and humble but, as emperors, kings, popes, bishops, and secular and spiritual authorities of any kind, they must correct others by teaching and punishing them while themselves living in splendour and luxury, the provision of which is an obligation for those they subject. Thanks to this false teaching which they whole-heartedly support, the ruling classes govern the people, forcing them to provide for the luxuries, vanities and vices of the rulers. Moreover, the scientists, being the only ones who have freed themselves from this hypnotic influence, and who alone can deliver the people from their yoke, and who say they wish to do so, rather than actually doing something to accomplish this aim, do the very opposite, imagining that they thereby serve the people.

What is Religion? by Leo Tolstoy