05 October, 2006

Words 2



"We may see their character, too, in their very jests. For they did not throw them out at random, but the very wit of them was grounded upon something or other worth thinking about. For instance, one, being asked to go hear a man who exactly counterfeited the voice of a nightingale, answered, "Sir, I have heard the nightingale itself." Another, having read the following inscription upon a tomb-

"Seeking to quench a cruel tyranny, They, at Selinus, did in battle die,"

said, it served them right; for instead of trying to quench the tyranny, they should have let it burn out."

Plutarch again, Dryden translation.


5 Comments:

Blogger Elsie said...

Worth thinking about, you think?

17:14  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It is your tyranny Elsie, not mine. What do you think?

19:31  
Blogger Elsie said...

My tyranny? Not sure about that. "There are few minds to which tyranny is not delightful."
---- Samuel Johnson

14:51  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Not yours personally Elsie.

This stuff caught my attention is all.

Tyranny again.

Democracies I find can be the worst.

16:02  
Blogger Elsie said...

Yes, Jack. Democracies can be the worst. But...a true democracy, if there were such a thing, surely would be magnificent to behold -- by THE people, real people, not just the rich, white SOBs that are running my country into, I don't know what, I hate to think oblivion, but that's where my mind goes. Then again, as I've told you, I'm simple that way. If only there were pie in the sky.

18:09  

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