What's your favorite political quote?

Benjamin Franklin once said: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." That quote often comes up in the context of new technology and concerns about government surveillance.
benjamin_franklin_quote_2.jpg

 
Mott the Hoople said:
It’s original name was Fort Duquesne. Before that it was Fort Prince George. The Fork area had been inhabited by natives before. In 1753 a certain Lt. Colonol George Washington convinced Virginia Governor Robert Dinwiddie that the Forks of Ohio region was an important location strategically into the western interior.

Dinwiddie ordered the construction of a Fort at the location where construction began on Fort Prince George. It was short lived as a French army under Contrecœur of 500 soldiers and a comparable number of Indians invaded the Forks region on task to build a chain of forts to secure the Great Lakes region in their interest. The occupants of Ft. Prince George were quickly evicted and construction of Fort Duquesne (named after the Marquis Duquesne Governor of New France (Canada)).

The Crown got the last laugh as the French ended up handing the Fort over to the British as a consequence of losing the Seven Years War. The Britts promptly named the fort after Sir William Pitt and the Americans named the city that grew around the fort “Pittsburgh”.
Click to expand...

Now there's a museum where the Fort used to stand. Fort Pitt Museum
 
christiefan915 said:
Yes I knew that about William Pitt. The student union at Uni of Pittsburgh is called the William Pitt Union. And the city's great seal is Pitt's family coat of arms. There are a number of references to him in and around the city.
Click to expand...

Thx for this info. And you even spelled Pittsburgh correctly. lol
 
Quetzalcoatl said:
I wish we had a Sulla in Trump.
Click to expand...
Trump is exactly the type of person Sulla would have proscribed. Sulla blamed the equestrian class (which was Rome’s plutocratic class) for profiteering during times of national crisis while the Roman Republic and the city itself crumbled around them.

Sulla's proscriptions fell heaviest on the plutocratic class not only because Rome was broke after dealing with the Germanic invasions, the Social Wars and the first Mithradatic war then more civil war when he returned to Italy but because Rome needed the money and as a measure of retribution against the plutocratic class.

So if we had a modern day Sulla and he proscribed men like Trump would be high on his list of persons to be proscribed.

Since this thread is on famous political quotes what do you think about Caesar’s famous quote “Sulla did not know his political ABC’s.”?
 
Peridot said:
They should consider themselves lucky to have survived.
Click to expand...
Actually Sulla was actually very fair and reasonable to his opponents who dealt with him honorably. Sullas ire was mostly towards those of the political class who betrayed him behind his back while he was defending Rome and Rome’s plutocrats. If you landed on that list you had serious problems.

I was going to give you famous example of Sullas cruelty when as Dictator he ordered a proscribed mans entire family executed but it would be a rule 12b violation. So though many historians malign Sulla as an inhuman monster some that is political character assasination much it is earned as Sulla clearly understood the mechanics of terror as a political tool and was incredibly cruel.

Which is a shame. Both Sulla and Marius were two of the greatest Romans ever who forever besmirched and beslimed their reputations with incomparable acts of violent cruelty towards the end of their careers.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Actually Sulla was actually very fair and reasonable to his opponents who dealt with him honorably. Sullas ire was mostly towards those of the political class who betrayed him behind his back while he was defending Rome and Rome’s plutocrats. If you landed on that list you had serious problems.

I was going to give you famous example of Sullas cruelty when as Dictator he ordered a proscribed mans entire family executed but it would be a rule 12b violation. So though many historians malign Sulla as an inhuman monster some that is political character assasination much it is earned as Sulla clearly understood the mechanics of terror as a political tool and was incredibly cruel.

Which is a shame. Both Sulla and Marius were two of the greatest Romans ever who forever besmirched and beslimed their reputations with incomparable acts of violent cruelty towards the end of their careers.
Click to expand...
Beslimed?? You must have been reading some Dickens or Thackeray!!

Sent from my Lenovo K8 using Tapatalk
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Since this thread is on famous political quotes what do you think about Caesar’s famous quote “Sulla did not know his political ABC’s.”?
Click to expand...

I think Caesar was being his typical boastful self. Sulla would probably have been the only single man to give real challenge to Caesar, at least from that era.
 
Quetzalcoatl said:
I think Caesar was being his typical boastful self. Sulla would probably have been the only single man to give real challenge to Caesar, at least from that era.
Click to expand...
He came very close to ending Caesars career early. If it had not been for Caesars mother Sulla would have had him executed.

I think Caesar couldn’t have been more wrong. Sulla died of natural causes in his own bed surrounded y friends and family where as Caesar was assasinated by his political opponents. Caesar made that comment in regards to Sulla establishing a new constitution and then walking away from political power before his reforms had been fully implemented. Guess Caesar didn’t know when to walk away from politics and Sulla did.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top