“I had a good mind to discontinue permanently the supply of grain to the city, reliance on which had discouraged Italian agriculture, but refrained because some politician would be bound one day to revive the dole as a means of ingratiating himself with the people.” — Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus

It is August 1, a month named after Cæsar Augustus, thus I thought I would go back to the old boy as my source for today’s quotation. There are many good or interesting quotations attributed to him, but this one tickled my funny bone. Yes, one might see it as a bit fatalistic. One might also see it as the root of Rome’s destruction that he did not act. Or, one might see it as a nod to human nature.