"make xxx great again"

Quote: Pacomartin

Holy Roman empire was basically from Charlemagne to Napoleon

No small irony that the lands Rome could never conquer were named after Rome and bore its name for far longer than the actual Roman Empire lasted!

If it's any consolation, the real Roman Empire was, well, the real Roman Empire. The Holy Roman Empire was pretty much the armpit of the continent until Napoleon broke it up.

Legions were great in the rolling hills of Tuscany but Bowmen are useless once their bow's sinews get wet, calvary units do well on open plains, as do legions, but force the Roman soldiers into a narrow striip of land between a forrest and a swamp and its disaster. The Germanic tribes did not encumber them selves with armor but more often sprang from the trees with axes and attacked the Romans. It always helps when the head of the Roman Legions is actually loyal to the enemy.

Quote: Nareed

No small irony that the lands Rome could never conquer were named after Rome and bore its name for far longer than the actual Roman Empire lasted!

Ce corps qui s'appelait et qui s'appelle encore le saint empire romain n'était en aucune manière ni saint, ni romain, ni empire.
Essai sur l'histoire générale et sur les mœurs et l'esprit des nations, Chapter 70 (1756) Voltaire

Quote: Pacomartin

Ce corps qui s'appelait et qui s'appelle encore le saint empire romain n'était en aucune manière ni saint, ni romain, ni empire.
Essai sur l'histoire générale et sur les mœurs et l'esprit des nations, Chapter 70 (1756) Voltaire

I don't speak French, but I think François-Marie Arouet would have agreed it was the armpit of Europe until Napoleon broke it up, had he lived long enough to see it.

I thought you would recognize the phrase "ni saint, ni romain, ni empire"

ni means 'neither' or 'nor' in both French and Spanish.

Quote: Pacomartin

I thought you would recognize the phrase "ni saint, ni romain, ni empire"

I did.

But the whole phrasing and style seem derogatory. Ergo THRE was a backwater without major import in European affairs (until the Reformation), and nothing major came off it until Napoleon broke it up and allowed for the rise of Prussia. I think Voltaire would agree to that, had he lived long enough to see it.

Quote: Nareed

But the whole phrasing and style seem derogatory.

I think that Voltaire was in general very cynical in his quotes. That is what makes them so memorable. One of my favorites:
In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.

Quote: Pacomartin

I think that Voltaire was in general very cynical in his quotes. That is what makes them so memorable. One of my favorites:
In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.

Taking it and keeping it for themselves, he means.

Quote: Pacomartin

I think that Voltaire was in general very cynical in his quotes.

Remember, it was a philosopher who invented Cynicism :)

Quote:

One of my favorites:
In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.

Not bad. But for such quotations, the go-to sources are Twain, Mencken and Heinlein.

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." Mencken.