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-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
S.A. Bent, comp. Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men. 1887.
Marcus Porcius Cato
[A model of antique Roman virtue, called Cato for his wisdom, also “the Censor,” and “the Elder,” born at Tusculum, B.C. 234; served against the Carthaginians; gained repute as an orator, and settled in Rome, where he rose to be consul and censor, reforming many abuses; strongly advised the third Punic war; died B.C. 149.]It is a hard matter to save that city from ruin where a fish is sold for more than an ox.
Complaining of the luxury of the Romans.Speaking of the power of women, he said, “All men naturally govern the women, we govern all men, and our wives govern us.” Plutarch says that this might have been taken from the Apothegms of Themistocles; for, as his son directed in most things through his mother, he said, “The Athenians govern the Greeks; I govern the Athenians; you, wife, govern me; and your son governs you: let him use, then, that power with moderation, which, child as he is, sets him above all the Greeks.”Cato found fault with the people for often choosing the same persons consuls: “You either think the consulate of little worth, or that there are but few worthy of the consulate.”It was a saying of his, that “Wise men learn more from fools, than fools from the wise; for the wise avoid the error of fools, while fools do not profit by the examples of the wise.”Another of his sayings was, that he “liked a young man that blushed, more than one that turned pale.” Diogenes, seeing a youth blush, said, “Right, my boy: that blush is the favorite color of virtue.”
“The man that blushes is not quite a brute.”YOUNG: Night Thoughts, VII. 496.