Revenge is sweeter than life itself. So think fools.
JuvenalRead
Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.
Interpretation
This quote criticizes how the people have surrendered their responsibilities to those in power, focusing instead on basic needs and distractions.
Juvenal's quote reflects on the apathy and disengagement of the populace from their civic duties in the face of a corrupt system. Instead of actively participating in governance and holding leaders accountable, people have resorted to seeking mere survival through basic comforts and entertainment, symbolized by 'bread and circuses,' which serves as a commentary on societal stagnation and the dangers of complacency.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about civic engagement during a political rally.
Revenge is sweeter than life itself. So think fools.
Peace visits not the guilty mind.
An incurable itch for scribbling takes possession of many, and grows inveterate in their insane breasts.
Poverty is bitter, but it has no harder pang than that it makes men ridiculous.
All wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price.
This is his first punishment, that by the verdict of his own heart no guilty man is acquitted.
This was the way I was brought up to think of politics, that politics was to do with ethics, it was to do with responsibility, it was to do with service, so I think I was conditioned to think like that, and I'm too old to change now.
When politicians start talking about large groups of their fellow Americans as 'enemies,' it's time for a quiet stir of alertness. Polarizing people is a good way to win an election, and also a good way to wreck a country.
We've come to be consumed by a 24-hour, slash-and-burn, negative ad, bickering, small-minded politics that doesn't move us forward. Sometimes one side is up and the other side is down. But there's no sense that they are coming together in a common-sense, practical, nonideological way to solve the problems that we face.
We have been taught to regard a representative of the people as a sentinel on the watch-tower of liberty.
A Republic, if you can keep it.
The local interest of a State ought in every case to give way to the interests of the Union. For when a sacrifice of one or the other is necessary, the former becomes only an apparent, partial interest, and should yield, on the principle that the smaller good ought never to oppose the greater good.
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