Saturday, April 23, 2011

Lucretius on Sisyphus and public office

"Sisyphus too exists before our eyes in real life.  He is the man who thirsts to run for the rods and cruel axes of public office, and who always returns beaten and dejected.  For to pursue the empty and unattainable goal of power, and in its pursuit to endure unremittingly hard toil, that is the struggle of pushing uphill a stone which, in spite of all, at the very peak rolls back and hurtles downward to the level ground below."   --Lucretius 3.966-1023 

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