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Quote of the Day: Treason from Within
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero
I have never been a big fan of Cicero. That is probably because my view of him was colored by Colleen McCollough’s Masters of Rome series. I always viewed him as self-important and full of himself. Regardless, even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then. Certainly this quote seems apropos today, especially after the Red Balloon incident.
“What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it, all the rest are not only useless, but disastrous.” — Thomas Merton
Father Lovasik didn’t mince words. He made it clear that gossip is a hateful activity, and those who indulged in it were to be held in contempt.
In a time when the term “equal rights” has taken a beating and people feel that equity is the only acceptable goal, I infer from Angelou that equal rights should be ubiquitous. We shouldn’t have to fight over them, or distort them so that some people get more of them than others. Or the term, “fair play.” Today we would use the term “equal opportunity,” even though many people would insist that equal opportunity is unacceptable unless we get equal results, which is impossible to attain. And justice: neither the rich man nor the poor man should have more access to justice just because of their circumstances. Unfortunately, the political Left would turn all these assumptions on their head.
“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.” — Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“It’s really something to see, constantly, how many people are dying for lack of an encouraging word. And how easy it is to provide that, if they’re careful, give credit where credit is due, and to say you’re a force for good if you want to be.” — Jordan Peterson