June 16

On the 16th in 1583, Count Axel Oxenstierna was born. He was a Swedish diplomat with keen powers of observation. In a 1648 letter to his son he asked that his child "Behold, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed[i]". Don’t you admit that the quote has a very contemporary ring to it?

[i] While the line was originally rendered in Latin as An nescis, mi fili, quantilla prudentia mundus regatur and is often attributed to Cardinal Richelieu, as well as to a slew of others, the saying appears to originate in a 1648 letter from Oxenstierna to his son. Still it rings true and the date fit in with this issue so, to be frank, I just stopped looking for who actually was the first to say it.