Pfa! Romans. Cicero. What did they know? Didn't they know Barack was going to save them all? Besides which, it's not like daddy won't pay for it anyway. Duh!!!
Mehercle! The Captain actually reads great authors! Allow me to add another Roman attribute that I doubt The Anointed One shares, from Flavius Josephus:
"They make a desert and call it peace."
Now there's how to deal with your troublesome neighbors! Cartago delenda est!
While I agree with what is said in the quote it appears the attribution to Cicero is in question.
Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106-43 B.C.)
Budget-balancing quote "The budget should be balanced. The Treasury should be filled. Public debt should be reduced. The arrogance of officials should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest we ourselves should become bankrupt. The people should be forced to work and not depend on government subsistence."
In an editorial on January 15, 1986, the _Kansas City Star_ quoted Cicero at length to bolster its own views about government spending. But the editor gave no source for his quotation and, when pressed to do so by skeptics, was unable to come up with any documentation. The Cicero statement sounds more like a disgruntled American critic of the welfare state than the Roman statesman.
-- Boller, Paul F., Jr. and John George. _They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions._ New York: Barnes & Noble, 1989.
Eheu! After doing my own research (which, frankly, I should have done more thoroughly in the first place, rather than post on a break from work), it appears your other posters are correct, for the most part, and Marcus T. did NOT say this.
Anyone who prosecutes Catiline for treason and tells Julius C. where to get off as far as the Republic is concerned is no poseur.
"[O]nce a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader — the barbarians enter Rome."
Mehercle! The Captain actually reads great authors! Allow me to add another Roman attribute that I doubt The Anointed One shares, from Flavius Josephus:
ReplyDelete"They make a desert and call it peace."
Now there's how to deal with your troublesome neighbors! Cartago delenda est!
Stealing it! (this is awesome)
ReplyDeleteWhile I heartily approve of the sentiments, the quote is suspect to say the least: http://message.snopes.com/showpost.php?p=570302&postcount=6
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with what is said in the quote it appears the attribution to Cicero is in question.
ReplyDeleteCicero, Marcus Tullius (106-43 B.C.)
Budget-balancing quote "The budget should be balanced. The Treasury
should be filled. Public debt should be reduced. The arrogance of
officials should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign
lands should be curtailed lest we ourselves should become bankrupt. The
people should be forced to work and not depend on government subsistence."
In an editorial on January 15, 1986, the _Kansas City Star_ quoted Cicero
at length to bolster its own views about government spending. But the
editor gave no source for his quotation and, when pressed to do so by
skeptics, was unable to come up with any documentation. The Cicero
statement sounds more like a disgruntled American critic of the welfare
state than the Roman statesman.
-- Boller, Paul F., Jr. and John George. _They Never Said It: A Book of
Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions._ New York: Barnes &
Noble, 1989.
I dunno, Obama reminds me of Cicero. A wet-finger in the air poseur.
ReplyDeleteEheu! After doing my own research (which, frankly, I should have done more thoroughly in the first place, rather than post on a break from work), it appears your other posters are correct, for the most part, and Marcus T. did NOT say this.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who prosecutes Catiline for treason and tells Julius C. where to get off as far as the Republic is concerned is no poseur.
Here we go!
ReplyDelete"[O]nce a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader — the barbarians enter Rome."
Robert A. Heinlein (Courtesy of The Corner @ NRO)