Marx’s First Law
Karl Marx
From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.
Prescott’s class act
Editor
The words ‘Prescott’ and ‘grapples’ conjure up the most unsavoury of images, involving the former deputy PM and his diary secretary Tracey Temple, so it is a relief - almost - to learn that in his new BBC2 programme the only thing he is grappling with is “political apathy, middle-class syntax, snobbery and the wealth gap in modern Britain”. There is, of course, only one thing to be said about class, and Eleanor Roosevelt said it best. Money, on the other hand, is a more complex subject, with many laws.
Publilius’s Maxims
Publilius
He doubly benefits the needy who gives quickly (Maxim 6)
Modern politicians - and wise donors - appreciate this. Early contributions are vital to getting campaigns underway; hence the name of the political fundraising organisation, EMILY’S List, the EMILY being an acronym for Early Money Is Like Yeast.
There are some remedies worse than the disease (Maxim 301)
A partial dissent from Hippocrates’s First Law.
Practice is the best of all instructors (Maxim 439)
Or as the more familiar proverb has it: Practice makes perfect.
He who is bent on doing evil can never want occasion (Maxim 459)
It is a bad plan that admits of no modification (Maxim 469)
Military strategists are very well aware of this; see the sixth of Liddell Hart’s Maxims.
A rolling stone gathers no moss (Maxim 524)
For an update see Gordon’s Rule of Evolving Bryographic Systems.
Never promise more than you can perform (Maxim 528)
A corollary in effect to the first maxim cited here.
No one should be judge in his own case (Maxim 545)
We desire nothing so much as what we ought not to have (Maxim 559)
See also the last of Aesop’s Adages.
It is not every question that deserves an answer (Maxim 581)
See also Norris’s Law.
You cannot put the same shoe on every foot (Maxim 596)
Money sets all the world in motion (Maxim 656)
It is a very hard undertaking to seek to please everybody (Maxim 675)
No one knows what he can do until he tries (Maxim 786)
Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it (Maxim 847)
Better be ignorant of a matter than half know it (Maxim 865)
Whom Fortune wishes to destroy she first makes mad (Maxim 911)
I have often regretted my speech, never my silence (Maxim 1070)
See also Horace’s Law.
Shakespeare’s Second Law
William Shakespeare
Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em.
