A man so great they named a triangle after him!
Posted on 11/09/2011 9:56:53 AM PST by Glenn
(as published in Michael Lewis' "Boomerang"):
"Democracy destroys itself because it abuses its right to freedom and equality. Because it teaches its citizens to consider audacity as a right, lawlessness as a freedom, abrasive speech as equality, and anarchy as progress."
Save this one!
Self ping.
“Double parked” - well put!
This Isocratic quote is a keeper, thanks for posting.
almost 2500 years ago, and so little has changed, if anything at all.
I found reading plutarch’s lives of sulla and marius quite depressing due to the close similarities of some of the issues in rome and today.
Human nature has changed little, if at all in its fundamentals. Over 2000 years ago, Titus Livy, in the introduction to his monumental history of Rome remarked that his purpose in writing was “to trace the progress of our moral decline, to watch, first, the sinking of the foundations of morality as the old teaching was allowed to lapse, then the rapidly increasing disintegration, then the final collapse of the whole edifice, and the dark dawning of our modern day when we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them.”
The people of Rome could do neither and night fell in the Western world for a thousand years.
Reminds me that as a young adult I prayed and asked God what made USA so good and felt like I got a 1 word response: Freedom.
About 15-20 years later [during Clinton scandals] I prayed and asked God what was causing the USA to fall so far from its greatness and felt like I got a 1 word response: Freedom.
“For those who directed the state in the time of Solon and Cleisthenes did not establish a polity which in name merely was hailed as the most impartial and the mildest of governments, while in practice showing itself the opposite to those who lived under it, nor one which trained the citizens in such fashion that they looked upon insolence as democracy, lawlessness as liberty, impudence of speech as equality, and licence to do what they pleased as happiness, but rather a polity which detested and punished such men and by so doing made all the citizens better and wiser.”
http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/greekfeatures/a/democracyisocr.htm
Yeah, I wish people would take the tiny bit of effort to at least run a Google search on quotes before they stick it in their sig or post it for the world to see on FR
There was a time when I liked many of the common quotes. Now I'm more wary of them.
The more that changes...
I posted it as it appeared in the attribution source. It's certainly much more readable and I trust Lewis. I looked for the quote online and fetched the life dates as well since they were not included in Lewis' work.
Thanks for your input.
Did Isocrates die from drinking Ihemlock?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.