Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes
Every evil in the bud is easily crushed: as it grows older, it becomes stronger.
Cicero, Marcus Tullius. Philippics. Translated by Walter C. A. Ker, Harvard University Press, 1926, p. 289.
Ideally problems of government would be prevented by good planning and anticipation. Once the political problem becomes evident, it is usually too late to resolve it well at reasonable cost. Machiavelli warned against waiting. However, he never imagined that a political problem would become evident, and the government officials or legislators would not deal with it and delay attempted resolution. However “kicking the can down the road” became very common in the latter part of the 20th century. By the beginning of the 21st century, the extreme political polarization of Congress had caused so much gridlock that almost no problem could be legislated upon, even well after it had been recognized.
Ironically, he had to drop out of the presidential nomination race because he was immersed in a personal scandal that erupted. He could not cope with it. Had he taken his own advice and dealt with it BEFORE the crises erupted, he might have weathered the storm. But he waited and was caught flat-footed.
Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman statesman, orator, lawyer and philosopher, who served as consul in the year 63 BC. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the Roman equestrian order, and is considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.
