Six hundred little servants were appointed to me, and three hundred tailors, while six of his Majesty’s greatest scholars set about to teach me the Lilliputian language.

The first words I learned were to ask for my liberty, which I repeated every day, on my knees. I swore to be at peace with their kingdom, but it took time for the little people to come to trust me. Trust, I learned, is the foundation of liberty.

Gulliver in Gulliver’s Travels, Blue Fairy Book. Illustration by Arthur Rackham.