#004: Through Their Own Folly

“If ye have suffered the melancholy consequences of your own incompetence, do not attribute this evil fortune to the gods. Ye have yourselves raised these men to power over you, and have reduced yourselves by this course to a wretched state of servitude. Each man among you, individually, walketh with the tread of a fox, but collectively ye are a set of simpletons. For ye look to the tongue and the play of a man's speech and regard not the deed which is done before your eyes.”¹

“Out of the cloud come snow and hail in their fury, and the thunderbolt springeth from the lightning's flash: so from great men ruin issueth upon the state, and the people through their own folly sink into slavery under a single lord. Having raised a man to too high a place, it is not easy later to hold him back : now is the time to be observant of all things."²

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Solon (c. 630 - c. 560 BC) Athenian statesman: “He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in archaic Athens.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon
1. THE FRAGMENTS OF SOLON'S POEMS XIII-XIV ~ https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011212503, (p. 145, bold emphasis added)
2. Fragments of Solon's Poems, p. 145; actual page at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?view=image;size=100;id=loc.ark%3A%2F13960%2Ft0gt6fp8w;q1=towns-folk;page=root;seq=159;num=145