January 29, 2025

Ordinary men usually manage public affairs better than more gifted fellows. The latter are always wanting to appear wiser than the laws, and to overrule every proposition brought forward, thinking that they cannot show their wit in more important matters, and by such behavior too often ruin their country; while those who mistrust their own cleverness are content to be less learned than the laws, and less able to pick holes in the speech of a good speaker; and being fair judges rather than rival athletes, generally conduct affairs successfully.

Thucydides (c.460–c.400 BC), Athenian historian and general, Peloponnesian War, III, 37, 4

Are you gifted? Or just ordinary?

This is among the best arguments for vesting the control of government in the hands of the common man and woman. But where it makes sense in the context described here, it doesn’t always elsewhere. [vide July 8]