“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again, learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”
Goodnight everyone, sleep well.
Cicero – 55 BC
Boadicea's Chariot 
sounds like a stuck record Zen. Gnight.
What goes around comes around…
or
the pendulum of history swings once again
Goodnight Mr Zen, sleep well
After 2066 years, you/I would have thought some budding politician would have listened!
It’ll never happen!
Not until I’m in power, obviously!
It must be embedded in our genes to cock up.
Hi, zen.
There really does come a point.
If you do the most perfunctorily, peripheral search of the Internet, you will find that Marcus Tullius Cicero, who happens to be one of my heroes, would appear to have never said anything approximating to your ‘quote’.
The closest most commentators can attribute is:-
‘The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign hands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall.’
Fine sentiments undoubtedly, but bearing very little resemblance to the guff that is being hawked around on said Internet as a Ciceronian utterance.
With respect, this really does matter to me. If we cannot check, recheck and completely verify any quote before we cast it forth onto the winds of the Internet, then we are doing a great disservice to both our heritage and to our future, in my opinion.
Good night, by the way!
Like me, JM, you are a dinosaur.
You have forgotten that in the modern age, truth is not important. All that matters is spin, image and a politically correct attitude.
I recently pointed out to Araminta the inappropriateness of her use of the word ‘racist’, and gave its strict definition. I was put firmly into my place by being told that, “while that may be true, the world has moved on and ‘racist’ means exactly what I want it to mean” – which in that particular case was a strongly derogatory attack on anyone who says a word against the “Religion of Peace”.
Forget your scholarship, your forensic precision – what matters is not what Cicero said, but what he would have said had he been given the benefit of a 21st century attitude realignment. š¦
Aye weel, Bearsy, good evening and a wee bit happier about the World Cup than I was. It’s going to be a long haul, nonetheless.
Expect incoming from Ara, in my opinion! I’m not absolutely sure that she would totally agree with your analysis of her position.
Whatever, who gives a flying wombat? The joy of Boa’s site, so far as as I am concerned, is that we can all have a slight dig at each other, if we feel like it, yet still contrive to retain the civilities. I am personally glad that ‘baggage’, whilst it might well exist, is not brought onboard here at the least opportunity.
It’s a bit like Ryanair when you think about it!
I will have to charge you aa mere Ā£10 for reading this!
A shame, JM, that you ignore the meat and potatoes of my comment in order to decry the gravy.
Ara will not be discombobulated by my remark, the truth of which she has already acknowledged in a later comment to Donald; she is currently coming to terms with being called a socialist, which is apparently harder to swallow. š
What I think is nice is that, in general, most people here don’t mind comments like #7. We’re all fairly open minded enough to accept that others may know a bit more about something than we do. š
And it is still amusing, whether accurate or not! š
I agree with Boadicea – just for the record I know a very little about a lot, alas I don’t know a lot about a little!
JM, Thank you. In my defence, this was not a quotation I found, but one I was sent from a hitherto unimpeachable source. I will be more careful in future!
… which is why one should always acknowledge one’s sources. š
Not when it would cause extreme embarressment to an elderly well-meaning lady.
I take your point Zen – and it is a difficult one.
If I might be allowed to remark the comment about ‘living on public assistance’ might have sounded alarm bells. I know that we all know that the Romans gave ‘Bread and Circuses’ (do we not do the same!) – but no society (before this daft one) has ever allowed anyone to survive solely on ‘public assistance’. The Bread was just that – free / subsidised grain, but, as far as I’m aware, no money. I do wish Janus was around – he is our expert on Ancient Rome.
Both Bearsy and I get so heartily sick of reading that Paul Keating / John Howard / Kevin Rudd said “the same thing”, when they said ‘no such thing’ that I suspect we’re both a little more wary (paranoid?) of quoting anything that comes via even the most respected source without checking.
Thanks for not getting the ‘orrible, ‘ateful ‘ump at JM’s correction – much appreciated š
Boadicea, yesterday was a very hectic day, a lunch party for my middle daughter, who got engaged on Thursday, her fiance, and an Indian couple, we are very fond of – my ex-GP and pharmacist wife. He grew up in Nairobi, her family was thrown out of Uganda by Idi. They met in England and settled in Wisbech where we met – great coincidence! I freely admit to posting ‘blind.’ Mea culpa.
I know nothing of Cicero other than what I gleaned from his BBC Radio show in the 60’s, ‘The Cicero Kid,’. If he never said it then he should have done.
OMG – The Cisco kid?
Zen – Clithero, it’s just a play on words as I attempt yet another cheap (but very gratifying to me) laugh.
Ah, yes, I remember it well!
“Expect incoming from Ara, in my opinion! Iām not absolutely sure that she would totally agree with your analysis of her position.”
Spot on Mr Mackie, I do not agree with said analysis but I have been too cold to argue about it, and Bearsy is also right, this dreadfulness has been overtaken by something Much Worse!
Me, a Socialist? I think not!
š