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Quotes Uncovered: Cicero, Franklin, and Thatcher

Quotes Uncovered

75 ThumbnailHere are more quote authors and origins Shapiro’s tracked down recently.

Eighteen weeks ago I invited readers to submit quotations for which they wanted me to try to trace the origins, using The Yale Book of Quotations and more recent research by me. Hundreds of people have responded via comments or e-mails. I am responding as best I can, a few per week.
epsilon asked:

“The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt, the mobs should be forced to work and not depend on government for subsistence.” This topical comment is widely attributed to Cicero, and equally widely deemed to be fake. What do you say?


Quotation Rule #1: Quotes that a politically conservative quoter disagrees with that are attributed to Lenin, Stalin, or Hitler are almost always phony.
Quotation Rule #2: Quotes that a politically conservative quoter agrees with that are attributed to Lincoln are almost always phony.
Quotation Rule #3: Quotes that a politically conservative quoter attributes to classical figures like Cicero, and that criticize modern, allegedly liberal trends are almost always phony.
JoyLuck76 asked:

“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” Attributed to Margaret Thatcher. Wondering if that is accurate before I start referencing it. Thanks.

The eminent researcher Barry Popik has traced “It’s the Labour Government that have brought us record peace-time taxation. They’ve got the usual socialist disease — they’ve run out of other people’s money,” to a speech by Thatcher at a Conservative Party conference, Oct. 10, 1975. He also found an alleged 1944 occurrence through Google Books, but this is probably the usual Google Books’ misdating of a serial publication.

AJ Venter
asked:

One of my favorite quotes I would love to know the true source of is usually attributed to George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, or occasionally to Thomas Jefferson and reads: “A nation that would trade freedom for a little temporary security will lose both and deserve neither.”


The Yale Book of Quotations
, which attempts to trace all famous quotations to their sources, has the following:

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Benjamin Franklin, “Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor,” November 11, 1755.

Do any readers have any other quotations whose origins they would like me to attempt to trace?


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