Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.
--
Letter to J.H. Tiffany (31 March 1819)John Adams
Philosophy: Why, you Precocious Pederast! You Palpable Pervert!
Sophistry: Pelt me with roses!
Philosophy: You Toadstool! O Cesspool!
Sophistry: Wreath my hairs with lilies!
Philosophy: Why, you Parricide!
Sophistry: Shower me with gold! Look, don't you see I welcome your abuse?
Philosophy: Welcome it, monster? In my day we would have cringed with shame.
Sophistry: Whereas now we're flattered. Times change. The vices of your age are stylish today.
(heavily rewritten and embellished tr. Arrowsmith 1962, p. 70)Aristophanes
From the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results; and from the influence of these on the sentiments and views of the respective proprietors, ensues a division of the society into different interests and parties. The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society.
James Madison
Faction is the greatest evil and the most common danger. "Faction" is the conventional English translation of the Greek stasis, one of the most remarkable words to be found in any language.
Moses I. Finley
Friends, I will disown and repudiate any man of my party who attacks with such foul slander and abuse any opponent of any other party.
Theodore Roosevelt
Compassion is something individual and voluntary. You cannot compel somebody to be compassionate; nor can you be vicariously compassionate by compelling somebody else. The Good Samaritan would have lost all merit if a Roman soldier were standing by the road with a drawn sword, telling him to get on with it and look after the injured stranger. Because there can be no such thing as compulsory compassion or vicarious compassion, therefore it is a humbugging abuse of language, intended to deceive, to talk about a 'compassionate Government' or a 'compassionate party'—or even a 'compassionate society', unless one simply means by that a society which happens to contain a lot of compassionate individuals. Nor let anyone protest: 'Oh, but when I vote for a party which will "make provision on an unprecedented scale for those in need of help", it means I too shall have to pay my whack and so I am being compassionate after all'. Nonsense! The purpose of your vote is not to make yourself subscribe—that you can freely do at any time—but to compel others.
Enoch Powell
Adams, John
Adams, John Bodkin
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