Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.
No man who is not willing to help himself has any right to apply to his friends, or to the gods.
Great and unexpected successes are often the cause of foolish rushing into acts of extravagance.
We need money, for sure, Athenians, and without money nothing can be done that ought to be done.
It is right to endure with resignation what the gods send, and to face one's enemies with courage.
We Athenians hold that it is not poverty that is disgraceful but the failure to struggle against it.
Just because you are not interested in politics, does not mean that politics is not interested in you.
Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!
Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.
There is a great deal of wishful thinking in such cases it is the easiest thing of all to deceive ones self.
What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.
Having knowledge but lacking the power to express it clearly is no better than never having any ideas at all.
Your empire is now like a tyranny: it may have been wrong to take it; it is certainly dangerous to let it go.
The more able a man is, if he make ill use of his abilities, the more dangerous will he be to the commonwealth.
Those who can think, but cannot express what they think, place themselves at the level of those who cannot think.
Good fortune is the greatest of blessings, but good counsel comes next, and the lack of it destroys the other also.
For a man's counsel cannot have equal weight or worth, when he alone has no children to risk in the general danger.
Time is the king of all men, he is their parent and their grave, and gives them what he will and not what they crave.
Our love of what is beautiful does not lead to extravagance; our love of the things of the mind does not make us soft.
Those who are politically apathetic can only survive if they are supported by people who are capable of taking action.
Trees, though they are cut and loped, grow up again quickly, but if men are destroyed, it is not easy to get them again
Trees, though they are cut and loped, grow up again quickly, but if men are destroyed, it is not easy to get them again.
As for poverty, no one need be ashamed to admit it, the real shame is in not taking practical measures to escape from it.
The man who has received a benefit ought always to remember it, but he who has granted it ought to forget the fact at once.
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.
If Athens shall appear great to you, consider then that her glories were purchased by valiant men, and by men who learned their duty.
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.
As a vessel is known by the sound, whether it be cracked or not; so men are proved, by their speeches, whether they be wise or foolish.
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.
You cannot have a proud and chivalrous spirit if your conduct is mean and paltry; for whatever a man's actions are, such must be his spirit.
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.
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.
The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it.
The man who is in the highest state of prosperity, and who thinks his fortune is most secure, knows not if it will remain unchanged till the evening.
It is impossible for men engaged in low and groveling pursuits to have noble and generous sentiments. A man's thought must always follow his employment.
There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots - suspicion.
Nothing is so easy as to deceive one's self; for what we wish, that we readily believe; but such expectations are often inconsistent with the real state of things.
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 the natural disposition of all men to listen with pleasure to abuse and slander of their neighbour, and to hear with impatience those who utter praises of themselves.
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.
Do you remember that in classical times when Cicero had finished speaking, the people said, "How well he spoke" but when Demosthenes had finished speaking, they said, "Let us march.
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.
He who confers a favor should at once forget it, if he is not to show a sordid ungenerous spirit. To remind a man of a kindness conferred and to talk of it, is little different from reproach.
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.
All who have taken it upon themselves to rule over others have incurred hatred and unpopularity for a time; but if one has a great aim to pursue, this burden of envy must be accepted, and it is wise to accept it.
We regard wealth as something to be properly used, rather than as something to boast about. As for poverty, no one need be ashamed to admit it: the real shame is in not taking practical measures to escape from it.
For heroes have the whole earth for their tomb; and in lands far from their own, where the column with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined in every breast a record unwritten with no tablet to preserve it, except that of the heart.
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.
In private matters everyone is equal before the law. In public matters, when it is a question of putting power and responsibility into the hands of one man rather than another, what counts is not rank or money, but the ability to do the job well.
Remember, too, that if your country has the greatest name in all the world, it is because she never bent before disaster; because she has expended more life and effort in war than any other city, and has won for herself a power greater than any hitherto known, the memory of which will descend to the latest posterity.