“Thou shalt not blame or flatter any.”
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Golden Sayings of Epictetus
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Epictetus 175
philosopher from Ancient Greece 50–138Related quotes
“If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.”
Notes for an announcement, written in advance of the Normandy invasion, in case of its failure, but never delivered (June 1944) http://doinghistoryproject.tripod.com/id17.html; reported in John Gunther, Eisenhower: The Man and the Symbol (1952), p. 41
1940s
Context: Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.
“Complaining of unfairness is like assigning blame, Percy Jackson. It does no one any good.”
Source: The Blood of Olympus
Quoted in Outlook and Independent, Vol. 156 (1930), p. 289. Ascribed to an October 1930 speech in The Encarta Book of Quotations (2000), p. 672
"The Laffer Curve", Knotted Doughnuts and other Mathematical Entertainments (1986)
Context: Ideologues of all persuasions think they know how the economy will respond to the Administration's strange mixture of Lafferism and monetarism. Indeed, their self-confidence is so vast, and their ability to rationalize so crafty, that one cannot imagine a scenario for the next few years, that they would regard as falsifying their dogma. The failure of any prediction can always be blamed on quirky political decisions or unforeseen historical events.
“When no one is to blame, everyone is to blame.”