Pericles Quotes

What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.

Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!

Those who can think, but cannot express what they think, place themselves at the level of those who cannot think.

I am more afraid of our own mistakes than of our enemies' designs.

We do not say that a man who takes no interest in public affairs is a man who minds his own business. We say he has no business being here at all.

As for poverty, no one need be ashamed to admit it, the real shame is in not taking practical measures to escape from it.

Those who can truly be accounted brave are those who best know the meaning of what is sweet in life and what is terrible, and then go out, undeterred, to meet what is to come.

Better die standing than live kneeling.

Time is the wisest counselor of all.

Having knowledge but lacking the power to express it clearly is no better than never having any ideas at all.

Wait for the wisest of all counselors, Time.

Future ages will wonder at us, as the present age wonders at us now.

Instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all.

Few love to hear the sins they love to act.

Just because you are not interested in politics, does not mean that politics is not interested in you.

Trees, though they are cut and loped, grow up again quickly, but if men are destroyed, it is not easy to get them again

Our love of what is beautiful does not lead to extravagance; our love of the things of the mind does not make us soft.

If Athens shall appear great to you, consider then that her glories were purchased by valiant men, and by men who learned their duty.

We do not imitate, but are a model to others.

The whole earth is the tomb of heroic men and their story is not given only on stone over their clay but abides everywhere without visible symbol woven into the stuff of other mens lives.

Who makes the fairest show means most deceit.

The marketplace is democratic.

We do not need the praises of a Homer, or of anyone else whose words may delight us for the moment, but the estimation of facts will fall short of what is really true.

It is difficult to argue with the belly, for it has no ears.

We Athenians hold that it is not poverty that is disgraceful but the failure to struggle against it.

Famous men have the whole earth as their memorial.

Nothing is pleasanter to me than exploring in a library.

Although only a few may originate a policy, we are all able to judge it.

For grief is felt not so much for the want of what we have never known, as for the loss of that to which we have been long accustomed.

For a man's counsel cannot have equal weight or worth, when he alone has no children to risk in the general danger.

Not to be able to bear poverty is a shameful thing, but not to know how to chase it away by work is a more shameful thing yet.

Time as he grows old teaches many lessons. - Aeschylus Time is the wisest counselor of all.

To face calamity with a mind as unclouded as may be, and quickly to react against it-that in a city and in an individual-is real strength.

A woman's greatest glory is to be little talked about by men, whether for good or ill.

She is best who is least spoken of among men, whether for good or evil.

Your great glory is not to be inferior to what you have been given by nature, and the greatest glory of a woman is to be least talked about by men, whether theyare praising or criticizing you.

Fishes live in the sea, as men do on land: the great ones eat up the little ones.

We do not imitate but are a model to others.

It is right to endure with resignation what the gods send, and to face one's enemies with courage.

[F]or grief is felt not so much for the want of what we have never known, as for the loss of that to which we have been long accustomed.

For famous men have the whole earth as their memorial.

Wait for that wisest of all counselores, Time.

Time is the wisest counselor.

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.

Make up your minds that happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.

Time is the wisest counsellor of all.

Master I marvel how the fishes live in the sea. Why as men do a-land: the great ones eat up the little ones.