Wednesday, October 09, 2024

 

A Priest

Maurice Baring (1874-1945), The Puppet Show of Memory (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1923), p. 272 (on a train in Russia):
The conversation ended with an exchange of stories among the soldiers. One of them told me a story about a priest. He wondered whether I knew what a priest meant, and to make it plain he said: "A priest, you know, is a man who always lies."
This reminds me of Cicero, On Divination 2.24.51 (tr. W.A. Falconer):
But indeed, that was quite a clever remark which Cato made many years ago: "I wonder," said he, "that a soothsayer doesn't laugh when he sees another soothsayer."

vetus autem illud Catonis admodum scitum est, qui mirari se aiebat quod non rideret haruspex haruspicem cum vidisset.
Related post: An Unlucky Meeting.



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