Your empire is now like a tyranny: it may have been wrong to take it; it is certainly dangerous to let it go.
— Pericles
Those who are politically apathetic can only survive if they are supported by people who are capable of taking action.
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.
What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.
For famous men have the whole earth as their memorial.
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.
Fishes live in the sea, as men do on land: the great ones eat up the little ones.
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.
It is more of a disgrace to be robbed of what one has than to fail in some new undertaking.
Trees, though they are cut and loped, grow up again quickly, but if men are destroyed, it is not easy to get them again.
Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.
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.
Time is the wisest counselor of all.
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.
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.
Our love of what is beautiful does not lead to extravagance; our love of the things of the mind does not make us soft.
A woman's greatest glory is to be little talked about by men, whether for good or ill.
Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.
Having knowledge but lacking the power to express it clearly is no better than never having any ideas at all.
