"thou, who, from so great darkness, wast first able to raise so effulgent a light, shedding-a-lustre-on the blessings of life, thee, O glory of the Greek nation, I follow, and now place the steps of my feet formed upon thy impressed traces, yet not because I am so eager to rival, as because, from the love which I feel for thee, I desire to imitate thee."
LOL.....2012 Campaign slogan, "Maybe We Can't"
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"...Furthermore, avarice, and the blind desire of honours, which drive men to transgress the bounds of right, and some times, as the accomplices and ministers of crimes, to strive night and day, with excessive labour, to rise to the height of power ; these passions, I say, which are the wounds and plagues of life, are nourished for the most part by the dread of death. For, in general, infamous contempt, and sharp poverty, seem removed from a pleasing and secure state of life, and seem to dwell, as it were, before the very gates of destruction. From which cause, while men, not submitting to die to avoid those evils, but restrained by a false terror of death and its consequences, wish that they may escape far, and remove themselves to a distance, from disgrace and want, they increase their property with civil bloodshed, and greedily double their riches, heaping slaughter on slaughter ; they cruelly rejoice at the sad end of a brother, and hate and dread the tables of their relations. From the same terror, in like manner, envy often wastes men away ; they grieve that he who walks before them in shining honour, should be powerful, should be looked upon with respect; they complain that they themselves are tossed about in obscurity and dishonour. Some pine to death for the sake of statues and a name, and often to such a degree from the fear of death, of seeing the light, affect men, that with a despairing mind, they commit self-murder ; forgetting that this fear is the source of all Dread; that this violates modesty, that this bursts the bonds of friendship; this, in fine, prompts mortals to overthrow piety and virtue. For men have often betrayed their country, and their dear parents, while seeking to avoid the regions of Acheron. Since as children tremble, and fear every thing in thick darkness, so we, in the light, fear sometimes things which are not more to be feared than those which children dread, and imagine about to happen, in the dark. This terror of the mind, therefore, it is not the rays of the sun, or the bright arrows of day, that must dispel, but the contemplation of nature, and the exercise of reason. First, then, I say, that the mind, which we often call the intellect, in which is placed the conduct and government of life, is not less an integral part of man himself, than the hand, and foot, and eyes," |
