Re:How to live an intellectually rich life
by whatnow37373 on Friday May 02, 2025 @11:36AM
(#43871191)
Seeing that I am on HN and can unleash unrestrained pedantry I wish to ask where Cicero actually writes that because I cannot find it?
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The full quote is allegedly "The purpose of education is to free the student from the tyranny of the present." ...I picked it up in Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death, but he didn't cite which work it came from. Goodreads attributes it to "Selected Works".
Re:How to live an intellectually rich life
by literalAardvark on Friday May 02, 2025 @12:12PM
(#43871679)
The Roman version of "trust me bro"
I thought Mark Twain said that. /ducks
I dodn't think it's a quote; more a paraphrase of: https://www.loebclassics.com/view/marcus_tullius_cicero-orat...
Re:How to live an intellectually rich life
by ahazred8ta on Saturday May 03, 2025 @01:55AM
(#43877127)
To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?
Re:How to live an intellectually rich life
by whatnow37373 on Saturday May 03, 2025 @02:39AM
(#43877280)
That’s a very … liberal interpretation.
I find it fascinating how many interesting quotes turn out to be fabrications of unknown origin.
I suspect what happened here (and possibly in other similar cases) is that some author glossed a body of work in a way that made sense in context, and others mistook it as a quotation. It's as if I remarked that Isaac Asimov said a lot of prescient things about robots, and people saw that and started quoting it:
> A lot of prescient things about robots.
> -- Issac Asimov