Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina

“You don't want captains in the army who know too much or think too much.”

DisciplineArmyObedienceNarcissusFollowing Orders193540

Book:Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina

Source: Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina

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“But godhead is, after all, a matter of fact, not a matter of opinion: if a man is generally worshipped as a god then he is a god. And if a god ceases to be worshipped he is nothing.”

Worship1935GodhoodClaudius

Book:Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina

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“The Roman Road is the greatest monument ever raised to human liberty by a noble and generous people. It runs across mountain, marsh and river. It is built broad, straight and firm. It joins city with city and nation with nation. It is tens of thousands of miles long, and always thronged with grateful travellers. And while the Great Pyramid, a few hundred feet high and wide, awes sight-seers to silence—though it is only the rifled tomb of an ignoble corpse and a monument of oppression and misery, so that no doubt in viewing it you may still seem to hear the crack of the taskmaster's whip and the squeals and groans of the poor workmen struggling to set a huge block of stone into position——”

RantMonumentsGreat Pyramid1935ClaudiusSeven WondersRoman Road

Book:Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina

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“On occasions of this sort it was, I must admit, very pleasurable to be a monarch: to be able to get important things done by smothering stupid opposition with a single authoritative word.”

AutocracyRed Tape1935ClaudiusMonarchism

Book:Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina

Source: Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina

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“And I learned this phrase off by heart and constantly made it my salvation. I used to throw up my hands, shut my eyes, and declaim: ‘Words fail me, my Lords. Nothing that I might utter could possibly match the depth of my feelings in this matter.’ Then I would pause for a few seconds and recover the thread of my argument.”

Claudius

Book:Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina

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“I happened to notice that among the men who had willingly presented themselves for jury-service was one whom I knew to be the father of seven children. Under a law of Augustus's he was exempt for the rest of his life; yet he had not pleaded for exemption or mentioned the size of his family. I told the magistrate: "Strike this man's name off. He's a father of seven." He protested: "But, Cæsar, he has made no attempt to excuse himself." "Exactly," I said, "he wants to be a juryman. Strike him off." I meant, of course,that the fellow was concealing his immunity from what every honest man considered a very thankless and disagreeable duty and that he therefore was almost certain to have crooked intentions. Crooked jurymen could pick up a lot of money by bribes, for it was a commonplace that one interested juryman could sway the opinions of a whole bunch of uninterested ones; and the majority verdict decided a case.”

CorruptionJuryCourtsJury Duty1935

Book:Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina

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“Religious fanaticism is the most dangerous form of insanity.”

ReligionInsanityFanaticism1935

Book:Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina

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“One can expect an agreement between philosophers sooner than between clocks.”

PhilosophyDisagreementClocksAncient Technology

Book:Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina

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