Who Said It: Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber, or Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet?
Can you guess them all? The answers are at the bottom.
A: “My library is filled with UN condemnations.”
B: “I’m looking at them from above, because God put me there.”
C: “I have a sour face. Maybe that’s why they say I’m a dictator.”
D: “I’m not someone who usually sends out threats. I warn only once. The day they touch one of my men, the rule of law is over.”
E: “The only solution to the issue of human rights is oblivion.”
F: “I was only an aspiring dictator. I was never a real dictator.”
G: “American hazing rituals…[are] equally self-destructive and, if anything, more lethal.”
H: “Tell my friends to get me out of here.”
I: “¡Pero que economía más grande!”
J: “At first, the job description for Supreme Court justices might seem self-evident: their job is to apply the Constitution and other laws to decide important legal controversies. If we try to become more specific, however, complications quickly arise.”
ANSWER KEY
A: Eisgruber, Princeton Opening Exercises, September 8, 2013.
B: According to reports, Eisgruber yelled this phrase from the Nassau Hall belfry shortly after seizing the presidency from Shirley Tilghman in the 2013 coup d’école.
C: Eisgruber sings this as background vocals on the Baha Men classic, “(Just A) Sunny Day”.
D: Eisgruber, meeting with grade deflation committee, January 22, 2014.
E: While originally attributed to Pinochet, this phrase has gained far more notoriety since Eisgruber used it in the introduction to his book Global Justice and the Bulwarks of Localism: Human Rights in Context.
F: Eisgruber, reflecting on his time with Phi Beta Kappa, interview with the Daily Princetonian, March 2, 2010.
G: Augusto Pinochet said this in an interview with the Santiago Times in 2001, when asked about his administration’s human rights abuses.
H: The closing words of Eisgruber’s address at Opening Exercises, September 8, 2013.
I: Tricked you! This one’s from Pinochet’s close friend, Margaret Thatcher. Three guesses as to what “economia” means in this context!
J: This was one of Pinochet’s favorite phrases, and one he would frequently use to rouse crowds in public addresses. Many scholars agree that no phrase better epitomizes the ideology of the Chilean military junta of the 1970s.
-AKS ’15
