Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Friday, September 2. 2011

QQQ

“The budget must be balanced, the Treasury must be refilled, public debt must be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom must be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands must be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”


Cicero, 55 B.C., as quoted by Bruce here yesterday

 

Posted by Bird Dog in Quotidian Quotable Quote (QQQ) at 08:21 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

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I see we've learned a lot since then.
#1 mare on 2011-09-02 09:58 (Reply)
That's ominous, especially when considered against to backdrop of what happened next to Rome.
#2 MTF on 2011-09-02 10:09 (Reply)
Pretty funny - nobody was listening then either. Everything turned out great anyway.
#3 NJSoldier on 2011-09-02 13:21 (Reply)
Wonderful quote. Sadly, the earliest reference to it seems to be in Gene Heck's "Building Prosperity" in 2007. He gives the date for the Cicero quote as 63 BC, BTW.

I couldn't agree more with the sentiment, but won't feel comfortable with the attribution until someone comes up with the exact reference. Was it in one of the letters? Speeches? One of his volumes of philosophy or rhetoric? Many of the letters date from 55, as does De Oratore...
#4 David Smith on 2011-09-02 15:51 (Reply)
Nice but no toga.

Antonius heartily agreed with him [sc. Cicero] that the budget should be balanced, that the Treasury should be refilled, that the public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of the generals should be tempered and controlled, that assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt, that the mobs should be forced to work and not depend on government for subsistence, and that prudence and frugality should be put into practice as soon as possible.
Taylor Caldwell in her novel based on the life of Cicero, A Pillar of Iron (1965), p. 483 of the 1965 edition published by Doubleday (Garden City, NY.)

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cicero#Misattributed
#5 vanderleun (Link) on 2011-09-03 02:07 (Reply)

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