Thursday, October 30, 2008

Depressing Quotation of the Day

"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."

Thanks a lot, John Adams, and happy birthday to you too.

~CKL
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4 comments:

  1. LCThursday, October 30, 2008 at 12:24:00 PM PDT

    Where'd you stumble on the quote?

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  2. CKLThursday, October 30, 2008 at 2:08:00 PM PDT

    It was in today's Writer's Almanac newsletter.

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  3. SkottThursday, October 30, 2008 at 3:41:00 PM PDT

    What experience did he base that on? Modern democracy hadn't been around that long...

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  4. CKLThursday, October 30, 2008 at 5:40:00 PM PDT

    Well, according to the Library of Congress, the quote is from a letter Adams wrote in April of 1814.

    I'd guess he was reaching back to ancient Greece or Rome, but dammit, Jim, I'm just a blogger, not a political historian. :)

    ReplyDelete