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For years I fear I have been misquoting a minor historical figure named Thomas Jefferson. I often enjoy yelping the quote, “Any civilization three generations away from revolution is no civilization at all.†Do I have that quote even close to right and did Jefferson even say it? Thanks to Google, I can only maintain four minutes of online skulking before I start yelling at the screen like a microwave having the nerve to take fourteen seconds. HELP!
I don't know about that quote. If Jefferson said it I'd like to know the context. Consider the following Jefferson quote, which calls for something less than continuous revolution:
"More than a generation will be requisite, under the administration of reasonable laws favoring the progress of knowledge in the general mass of the people, and their habituation to an independent security of person and property, before they will be capable of estimating the value of freedom, and the necessity of a sacred adherence to the principles on which it rests for preservation."
There is a good podcast about American history called Backstory with the American History Guys (they have a website, too). Maybe if you write to them they can answer your question.
Thanks for the "Backstory" tip. I have over forty podcasts and had never heard of that one. Finding a great new podcast with a backlog of shows tends to loose me sleep for a few days. Still, thank you. I am willing to bet that my quote was not a Jefferson quote. Every squeak from good ol' Tommy is ripe for the Googlin'. Closest I have found is, “Every generation needs a new revolution.â€
I am sure I didn't make it up however, and I don't want to be quoting some whack-job (even if I only quote it to prod good friends and incite good arguments.) I could never say, "Well, Himmler once said..."
(Fingers crossed for somebody pre-enlightenment, maybe something in a recluse.)
Finding a great new podcast with a backlog of shows tends to loose me sleep for a few days.
Tell me about it! I never get a full night's sleep anymore! Gone are the days when drooping eyes stopped reading; I can now listen in the dark with eyes closed. Kids don't need flashlights under the bed covers. And we were already a sleep-deprived nation! Can you imagine all the podcasts that our Founding Fathers would have put out if they had it back then? There would be "The Podcast of Independence," and "The Federalist Podcast," for starters.
I have been saying it for so long, I assume I heard it in college. I am almost positive I didn't make it up, but I do enjoy quoting myself in arguments and then saying so and so said it. It's a great (although unrighteous) debating trick. "Always grant citation to another, no one ever believes something you say." ~Mark Twain. Perhaps I should pull the "revolution" quote from my quarreling quote quiver. I don't fully believe it, and I only use it to cause seizures in friends with tendencies towards the "Grander" of parties. "No, you smell!" works as well. Considering the haughty anarchistic nature of the quote, I fear it was said by some sort of rapscallion. Hmmm... maybe it was me. I doubt it though, every time I think I got an original thought it turns out that Oscar Wilde or Harpo Marx (HA!) said it. Although I did come up with, "There are two types of people in this world: those who think there are only two types of people in this world, and those who know better." ~Twain (J/k)
ps please don't look up that last quote. Ignorance is bliss and I'm bursting with fruit flavor.
You heard that quote in college, eh? In that case it sounds suspiciously like what a typical rebellious college kid would say when referring to the "older" generation. Many college-age kids think that all the ills of the world were caused by the generations that preceded them (which is true, after all), and that through "revolution" they will change the world for the better. So maybe that quote was the motto of one of the frat houses, and they attributed it to Jefferson, following Twain's advice?
I like the sound of "Podicles of Confederation." Reminds me of Eliot's Podicle Dogs and Jellicle Cats.
I will keep looking, although I would bet a dollar I didn't say it. I have sent my query off to several sources, and I will let you know what I find. This is not really a “Quote†resource, and I thank you both for you research efforts.
Grant, my girlfriend mocked me fervently when I gushed, “GRANT BARRET ANSWERED MY FORUM QUESTION!†I have used your arguments for what makes a word, a word, SO many times, and trumpet your stance on English's distinction (for example) from French and Icelandic languages, and feel “living†language is truly apt on SO many levels.
“A word understood, is a word. Understood?†~Mark Twain
Anywho, were you familiar with, “Hypnerotomachia?†Though Greek is Martha forte, (FORT!! Though you and I both know, it will be “for-tay†in the future, and pretty much is already. Try and say FORT and being understood. Sorry Crepe) I feel silly thinking you (man-crush alert!) have not heard of it. It's from the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a early 16th century treatise by Brother Francesco Colonna (though this fact is in slight debate.) From the Greek hypnos, ‘sleep', eros, ‘love', and mache, ‘fight.' So, Poliphilo's strife of/for love in a dream. I have held for many years that life itself seems to have such a purpose, if not even an exact description by said title. Some existentialists seem to point to consciousness and all existence as bridled with Poliphilo's exact quest. I ran into the book years ago and have used Hypnerotomachia as a login for websites and such accounts ever since. Shockingly it is ALWAYS available. Go figure. My only mistake was to make it my Xbox Live name, and later while using a headset in a, “shooty-killy game†(as my girlfriend calls them.) I kept being killed because of lines like, “Hey, Hy…hyp-in-er…-hyper-auto…hypeaotumcae-…cia, you are about to blow up!†(My ashes had cooled long before the sentence had completed) R.I.P. shooty-killy guy.
To make a long story short (too late) I have always been a town crier for Hypnerotomachia and would be remiss if I didn't suggest it as some sort of, “Here's some fancy word-a-tudicle!†or perhaps, “Check out this mouthful of marbles!†Martha loves Greek!
Forever in Bromance,
~Hypner
ps Bromance has now been added to my dictionary. R.I.P. wiggly red line.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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