Marcus Tullius Cicero Quotes
We must not say every mistake is a foolish one.
We all have 20-20 hindsight, and sometimes well analyzed decisions turn out badly as the result of unfortunate circumstances.
Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106 BC - 43 BC, Roman Statesman & Philosopher, Quoted in Thomas Benfield Harbottle, Dictionary of Quotations, 3rd Ed., 1906
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Elements of the Army lied to the family of the dead soldier and the media, and then tried to cover up the lies. Abazaid is one of the few government high officials who was candid about his agency’s failure.
He was the leader of the team that followed to invading troops into Iraq to find the nuclear and other WMDs that the CIA had said were deployed and ready to be used. They found none. Worse for the CIA, there were not even any development programs ongoing. The CIA Director was furious with Kay for admitting the CIA gross error. Kay was given minor assignments thereafter even though he was the best WMD analyst we had.
Some ascribe the remark to Joseph Fouche. See Dean Acheson for a later use of this concept in describing the Vietnam War.
The public and the educators were outraged and no sooner was the school closed, than immigration had people moving to New York created a need for more high school capacity. La Guardia was one of the few politicians who tended to admit his mistakes, go on and fix them and then do some other “good stuff.” Others argue that he was so popular so he could admit to anything and get away with it. This was perhaps true, but one of the reasons for the great popularity was extreme honesty and candor and a minimum of hypocrisy.
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.
