This post reminded me of a similar story. In all three of Barry Goldwater’s published autobiographies, he claims that his line “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice” comes from Cicero’s orations against Catiline. Of course, having read Cicero’s orations against Catiline, I was puzzled by the fact that they don’t include the line, and at a party about a dozen years ago I asked Harry Jaffa about it since, of course, he wrote that speech. He sighed and rolled his eyes. “Yes, I don’t know why he keeps saying that,” he said. “I wrote that line myself....”
But I guess claiming that something comes from Cicero makes you sound more Senatorial than saying it came from Harry Jaffa.
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