Curtis Dahlgren
This is your brain on socialism, part 2 >> { [: ( [ )
By Curtis Dahlgren
"Twice have [millions] called me to the throne . . . What? Who are you? nothing! . . . I am the throne!" – Napoleon, to the Legislature, 1813 (shortly before his downfall)
IN THE MOUTH OF 2 OR 300 WITNESSES A THING SHALL BE ESTABLISHED. Last week I argued that my tendency to quote others is not madness but methodology. The one-liners below, an excerpt from a previous overly-long column,** ought to establish my premise:
- "If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the primary difference between a dog and a man." – Mark Twain
- "The best things and best people rise out of their separateness; I'm against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise." – Robert Frost (1874-1963)
- "Those who have given themselves the most concern about the happiness of peoples have made their neighbors very miserable." – Anatole France (1844-1924)
- "The common excuse of those who bring misfortune on others is that they desired their good." – de Vaunenargues
- "Striving to better, we often mar what's well." – Wm. Shakespeare (1564-1616)
- "When the well's dry, we know the worth of water." – Franklin
- "The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities." – Sophocles (496-406 BC)
- "Rich man down and poor man up – they are still not even." – Yiddish proverb
- O Beware my lord of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on." – Shakespeare
- "A show of envy is an insult to oneself." – Yevgeny Yevtushenko
- "Envy is a timid and shamefaced passion we never dare to acknowledge." – Duc Rochefaucauld (1613-1680)
- "Jealousy is the fear of superiority; envy is the uneasiness under it." – Wm. Shenstone ((1714-1763)
- "People hate those who make them feel their own inferiority." – Chesterfield
- "What we cannot possess, we cheapen." – author unknown
- "Pride is generally censured and decried, but mainly by those who have nothing to be proud of." – Arthur Schoepenhauer (1788-1860)
- "To know your ruling passion, examine your castles in the air." – Archbishop Richard Whately (1787-1863)
- "There is not a passion so strongly rooted in the human heart as envy." – Richard Sheridan (1751-1816)
- "Envy always slays itself by its own arrows." Unknown
- "He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander." – Napoleon
- "Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers." – Rochefaucauld
- "Popularity? It is glory's small change." – Hugo (1802-1885)
- "Talkers are no good doers." – Shakespeare
- "The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency . . . from not knowing what is going on in other people's minds." – Walter Bagehot (1826-1877)
- "Every individual or national degeneration is immediately revealed by a directly proportional degeneration in language." – Joseph Marie-de Maistre
- "How many people become abstract as a way of appearing profound!" – Joseph Joubert (1754-1824)
- "Nothing is more despicable than a professional talker who uses words as a quack uses his remedies." – Fenelon (1651-1715)
- "You can't multiply money by dividing it." – author unknown
- "The enemies of the future are always the nicest people." – Christopher Morley (1890-1957)
- "The utopian schemes of leveling and a community of goods are as visionary and impracticable as those which vest all property in the Crown . . . [they] are arbitrary, despotic, and in our government, unconstitutional." – Sam Adams
CONCLUSION: To review something from last week:
"Napoleon Bonapart, Emporer of France was from 1799-1815 the central figure of European history. His brilliant career resulted largely from his ability to seize or create opportunities, and his utterly unscrupulous methods to attain dominance . . . Few people in history have approached him in genius for action and administration, in fashioning circumstances and directing men for the object he had in mind." – Frank Magill, Magill's Quotations in Context
P.S. As Napoleon's right hand man used to say, "No crisis is too good to go to waste."
Enough said? More to come.
**
www.RenewAmerica.com/columns/Dahlgren/111222 "A FEW WORDS MORE from those Dweebs and WASPs"
© Curtis Dahlgren
January 18, 2013
"Twice have [millions] called me to the throne . . . What? Who are you? nothing! . . . I am the throne!" – Napoleon, to the Legislature, 1813 (shortly before his downfall)
IN THE MOUTH OF 2 OR 300 WITNESSES A THING SHALL BE ESTABLISHED. Last week I argued that my tendency to quote others is not madness but methodology. The one-liners below, an excerpt from a previous overly-long column,** ought to establish my premise:
- "If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the primary difference between a dog and a man." – Mark Twain
- "The best things and best people rise out of their separateness; I'm against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise." – Robert Frost (1874-1963)
- "Those who have given themselves the most concern about the happiness of peoples have made their neighbors very miserable." – Anatole France (1844-1924)
- "The common excuse of those who bring misfortune on others is that they desired their good." – de Vaunenargues
- "Striving to better, we often mar what's well." – Wm. Shakespeare (1564-1616)
- "When the well's dry, we know the worth of water." – Franklin
- "The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities." – Sophocles (496-406 BC)
- "Rich man down and poor man up – they are still not even." – Yiddish proverb
- O Beware my lord of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on." – Shakespeare
- "A show of envy is an insult to oneself." – Yevgeny Yevtushenko
- "Envy is a timid and shamefaced passion we never dare to acknowledge." – Duc Rochefaucauld (1613-1680)
- "Jealousy is the fear of superiority; envy is the uneasiness under it." – Wm. Shenstone ((1714-1763)
- "People hate those who make them feel their own inferiority." – Chesterfield
- "What we cannot possess, we cheapen." – author unknown
- "Pride is generally censured and decried, but mainly by those who have nothing to be proud of." – Arthur Schoepenhauer (1788-1860)
- "To know your ruling passion, examine your castles in the air." – Archbishop Richard Whately (1787-1863)
- "There is not a passion so strongly rooted in the human heart as envy." – Richard Sheridan (1751-1816)
- "Envy always slays itself by its own arrows." Unknown
- "He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander." – Napoleon
- "Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers." – Rochefaucauld
- "Popularity? It is glory's small change." – Hugo (1802-1885)
- "Talkers are no good doers." – Shakespeare
- "The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency . . . from not knowing what is going on in other people's minds." – Walter Bagehot (1826-1877)
- "Every individual or national degeneration is immediately revealed by a directly proportional degeneration in language." – Joseph Marie-de Maistre
- "How many people become abstract as a way of appearing profound!" – Joseph Joubert (1754-1824)
- "Nothing is more despicable than a professional talker who uses words as a quack uses his remedies." – Fenelon (1651-1715)
- "You can't multiply money by dividing it." – author unknown
- "The enemies of the future are always the nicest people." – Christopher Morley (1890-1957)
- "The utopian schemes of leveling and a community of goods are as visionary and impracticable as those which vest all property in the Crown . . . [they] are arbitrary, despotic, and in our government, unconstitutional." – Sam Adams
CONCLUSION: To review something from last week:
"Napoleon Bonapart, Emporer of France was from 1799-1815 the central figure of European history. His brilliant career resulted largely from his ability to seize or create opportunities, and his utterly unscrupulous methods to attain dominance . . . Few people in history have approached him in genius for action and administration, in fashioning circumstances and directing men for the object he had in mind." – Frank Magill, Magill's Quotations in Context
P.S. As Napoleon's right hand man used to say, "No crisis is too good to go to waste."
Enough said? More to come.
**
www.RenewAmerica.com/columns/Dahlgren/111222 "A FEW WORDS MORE from those Dweebs and WASPs"
© Curtis Dahlgren
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
