A Leninist Proverb on Race

Shane Mage shmage at pipeline.com
Sat Mar 3 10:38:42 PST 2001


The phrase "c'était pire qu'un crime--c'était une faute" belongs to that depraved cynic Talleyrand, Napoleon's Foreign Minister. He referred to Napoleon's abduction from Switzerland and subsequent execution of the Duc d'Enghien, the last scion of the House of Bourbon-Condé, nephew of Philippe d'Orléans (aka Philippe Égalité) and first cousin to Louis Philippe. The crime took place in 1804, and Talleyrand himself was complicit.

On Sat. 3 March Michael Perelman wrote:


>More than a century and a half ago the British historian, Thomas Babington
>Macaulay, wrote an essay on Lord Clive. Looking back on an indiscretion
>in Clive's life, Macaulay concluded that "he committed, not merely a
>crime, but a blunder" (Macaulay 1840, p. 341).
>
>On Sat, Mar 03, 2001 at 03:56:30PM -0000, Justin Schwartz wrote:
>>
>> Lenin, schmenin. This is a paraphrase of a French epigram: "It was worse
>> than a crime. It was a mistake!" --jks

Shane Mage

"Thunderbolt steers all things."

Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 64



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