I saw this post elsewhere: ‘To paraphrase an old line, lots of Americans would be happy to live under a bridge eating a rat, as long as the other guy has only half a rat.’ Also, Der Trihs posted the line in the Social Security thread, saying he was paraphrasing from memory.
If the quote is paraphrased, what was the original quote? Who said it, and when?
Dunno, but a fair number of years back, on a quazi-political site I remember a quip about Euopeans thinking such and such about Americans, and Americans ( on the righter side ) thinking thanks to socialism Europeans now lived in huts chewing on rats.
Trolls would be associated with living under bridges, and Anatole France famously said ‘In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.’
I think the spirit of** happily suffering so long as others suffer more** is encapsulated in a number of bitter European proverbs. But really it’s part of the essence of war: one lot takes the bombing with the comfort that the enemy is being bombed worse…
Someone once described the Russian character, the meanness and desire to not let their neighbor get ahead as this:
I’ll admit I’ve never heard that particular expression.
I have however heard the same idea expressed in other ways.
“It’s not enough for me to win. You have to lose.” or “Some people wouldn’t be able to enjoy Heaven unless they knew other people were in Hell.”
My cousin quoted me a saying supposedly well known in Ireland, “It is not enough that I succeed. All my friends must fail.”