Carelessness and cruelty ... infects any power when it governs a people not its own without safeguarding itself by giving the subjects the largest possible amount of autonomy.
It seem very probable that Rome was able to conquer foreign territories because she had developed her military genius at the expense of precisely those qualities which would have made her able to rule them.
Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon
A commonplace book: an old-fashioned literary diary for recording interesting items from reading you've done. I use mine to record snippets from reading, conversation and life in general. (The early 2003 entries are from a period some years ago -- before the blog age -- when I tried an online commonplace book as a straight web page.)
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Sunday, July 10, 2005
It is the habit of the people, whenever an old man mismanages his business so that it falls to pieces as soon as he dies, to say, "Ah, So-and-so was a marvel! He kept things together so long as he was alive, and look what happens now he has gone."
Rebecca West speaking about Emperor Franz Josef in Black Lamb and Grey Falcon
Rebecca West speaking about Emperor Franz Josef in Black Lamb and Grey Falcon
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