Thanks for the details. Yes, it is interesting that the quote is Machiavelli and not Emerson. DIdn’t sound like Emerson (not that I’ve read him).
Over the years Ive often seen where some journalist attributes a quote to some well educated individual that was in reality themselves quoting another source but the writer didnt seem to know any better. Emerson is supposed to have used it in a conversation with Holmes and this is often cited as the source but whomever it may have been that documented that may not have known any better?
Im not well read in Emerson’s writings either so there may be reasons Emerson was used as the source that arent obvious. For ecample, Emerson is well known for his work “Essays” First and Second series. In the first is a work called “Self Reliance” where he tells the reader to examine their relationship with nature and God and to trust their own judgement. Sounds like someone we know.
Maybe not. Maybe its a reference to how Harvard hasnt been a center of real education for a long time. Decades ago it degenerated into a daycare where the rich buy degrees for their children. That would also bring us to the conversation about Chinese money in education and all the funny business related to that.
Maybe its something else but like I said I dont know Emerson well enough to recognize.