5 Quotes Tagged: pericles

"For the whole earth is the tomb of famous men; not only are they commemorated by columns and inscriptions in their own country, but in foreign lands there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them, graven not on stone but in the hearts of men. Make them your examples, and, esteeming courage to be freedom and freedom to be happiness, do not weigh too nicely the perils of war."

[Funeral Oration of Pericles]

What is democracy? It is what it says, the rule of the people. It is as good as the people are, or as bad.

Periclean Greeks employed the term idiotis, without any connotation of stupidity or subnormality, to mean simply 'a person indifferent to public affairs.' Obviously, there is something wanting in the apolitical personality. But we have also come to suspect the idiocy of politicization — of the professional pol and power broker. The two idiocies make a perfect match, with the apathy of the first permitting the depredations of the second.

I want to build / and raise anew / Theseus' Temple and the Stadiums / and where Pericles lived
But there's no money, too much spent today / I had a guest over and we sat together.

The fact is that men who know nothing of decency in their own lives are only too ready to launch foul slanders against their betters and to offer them up as victims to the evil deity of popular envy.