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Quote by Tan Twan Eng

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The House of Doors

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Author

Tan Twan Eng
Tan Twan Eng

Tan Twan Eng is a Malaysian author known for his unique literary style and profound cultural insights. His works often explore issues of identity, family, and society, winning him widespread acclaim from readers. more

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“Our way would seem quite familiar to the Romans, more by far than the Greek way. Socrates in the Symposium, when Alcibiades challenged him to drink two quarts of wine, could have done so or not as he chose, but the diners-out of Horace's day had no such freedom. He speaks often of the master of the drinking, who was always appointed to dictate how much each man was to drink. Very many unseemly dinner parties must have paved the way for that regulation. A Roman in his cups would've been hard to handle, surly, quarrelsome, dangerous. No doubt there had been banquets without number which had ended in fights, broken furniture, injuries, deaths. Pass a law then, the invariable Roman remedy, to keep drunkenness within bounds. Of course it worked both ways: everybody was obliged to empty the same number of glasses and the temperate man had to drink a great deal more than he wanted, but whenever laws are brought in to regulate the majority who have not abused their liberty for the sake of the minority who have, just such results come to pass. Indeed, any attempt to establish a uniform average in that stubbornly individual phenomenon, human nature, will have only one result that can be foretold with certainty: it will press hardest on the best.”

DrinkingEqualityRomeProhibitionDrunkennessDecadenceRegulationsSymposiumHoraceAlcibiadesManagerial EliteManagerial StateRoman Life
Book:The Roman Way
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“Ode I.11 Leucon, no one's allowed to know his fate, Not you, not me: don't ask, don't hunt for answers In tea leaves or palms. Be patient with whatever comes. This could be our last winter, it could be many More, pounding the Tuscan Sea on these rocks: Do what you must, be wise, cut your vines And forget about hope. Time goes running, even As we talk. Take the present, the future's no one's affair”

Carpe DiemSeize The DayOdesHorace
Book:The Essential Horace: Odes, Epodes, Satires and Epistles
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