Help with the source of a quotation
Charles M. Strauss
I am trying (with, so far, a complete lack of success) to find a
reference to the source of the following lines, attributed to Hesiod:
"I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on
frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond
words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and
respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise
[disrespectful] and impatient of restraint".
This translation appears to be everywhere dense on the Internet, but I
can't seem to find it in Hesiod. I've tried Bartlett's and the
reference librarian at my local library without success. I don't
think it's a figment of the Internet's imagination, since Bertrand
Russell, in (I think) one of the pieces in "Unpopular Essays",
paraphrases this quotation and attributes it to Hesiod.
Can anyone help me find the source of this quotation?
[I apologise if I have ever posted this request before - I was looking
for this quotation several years ago and cannot remember if I ever
tried to invoke the aid of the AUE membership.]
/cms
Donna Richoux
Charles, we've discussed four or five very similar quotes in the last
month or two, all attributed to different historical eras and figures.
Some are known to be bogus and we assume the others are also, by
association. Here's a pretty authoritative debunking, from a librarian
group:
http://listserv.dom.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0208&L=STUMPERS-L&P=R6193
As you'll see, evidence suggests that the notion was invented for a 1933
novel called _The Werewolf of Paris_.
You can find the threads where we discussed this from this data:
Subject: Re: Don't look here for open discussion
Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2003 22:54:48 +0200
Message-ID: <1g0kvfk.10p0ebk1o47micN%tr...@euronet.nl>
Subject: Re: Apocryphal texts about disobedient children irevisited
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2003 22:45:09 +0200
Message-ID: <1g1k16d.1m3o69u1620lxbN%tr...@euronet.nl>
--
Best -- Donna Richoux