Today’s Quote: Cicero

Quote

“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”

— Cicero, in 55 B.C.

I think this is a particularly trenchant quote at the moment, what with the bunch of morons in Washington flirting with disaster. We’re all going to pay, and pay dearly for their incompetence and I wouldn’t be surprised if the country is permanently damaged. And just look at what happened to Rome…

Today’s Quote: Uesugi Kenshin

Quote

“Even a life-long prosperity is but one cup of sake;
A life of forty-nine years is passed in a dream;
I know not what life is, nor death.
Year in, year out—all but a dream.
Both Heaven and Hell are left behind;
I stand in the moonlit dawn,
Free from clouds of attachment.”

 —Uesugi Kenshin, “The Dragon of Echigo” (1530-1578)

Poem written in anticipation of his own death—very Bushido