By heaven, he said, then the parent will discover what a monster he has been fostering in his bosom; and, when he wants to drive him out, he will find that he is weak and his son strong. . . . Then he is a parricide, and a cruel guardian of an aged parent; and this is real tyranny, about which there can be no longer a mistake: as the saying is, the people who would escape the smoke which is the slavery of freemen, have fallen into the fire which is the tyranny of slaves. Thus liberty, getting out of all order and reason, passes into the harshest and bitterest form of slavery.

In this passage from The Republic, Plato warns against the dangers of unbridled liberty leading to tyranny. Through the dialogue of Socrates, he illustrates a scenario where the populace, seeking freedom from oppression, inadvertently nurtures a tyrant. This tyrant, once empowered, becomes a "parricide," betraying those who raised him. The metaphor of escaping smoke only to be consumed by fire highlights the irony and peril of replacing one form of oppression with another, more severe form. Ultimately, Plato suggests that without balance and order, freedom devolves into "the harshest and bitterest form of slavery," emphasizing the need for a just and structured society to prevent such a descent into despotism.