Pericles > Quotes

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

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved on stone momuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.”
― Pericles

“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.”
― Pericles

“Wait for that wisest of all counselores, Time.”
― Pericles

“Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.”
― Pericles

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

“[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.”
― Pericles

“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.”
― Pericles

“We cultivate refinement without extravagance and knowledge without effeminacy; wealth we employ more for use than for show, and place the real disgrace of poverty not in owning to the fact but in declining the struggle against it. Our public men have, besides politics, their private affairs to attend to, and our ordinary citizens, though occupied with the pursuits of industry, are still fair judges of public matters; for, unlike any other nation, regarding him who takes no part in these duties not as unambitious but as useless, we Athenians are able to judge at all events if we cannot originate, and 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.”
― Pericles

“Time is the wisest counsellor of all”
― Pericles

“To be happy means to be free and to be free means to be brave. Therefore do not take lightly the perils of war.”
― Pericles, The Funeral Oration of Pericles

“Just because you do not take an interest in politics...does not mean that politics won't take an interest in you.”
― Pericles

“The freedom which we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life. There, far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbor for doing what he likes, or even to indulge in those injurious looks which cannot fail to be offensive, although they inflict no positive penalty.”
― Pericles

“Mankind are tolerant of the praises of others so long as each hearer thinks that he can do as well or nearly as well himself, but, when the speaker rises above him, jealousy is aroused and he begins to be incredulous.”
― Pericles, The Funeral Oration of Pericles

“A man who has the knowledge but lacks the power to express it is no better off than if he never had any ideas at all.”
― Pericles

“A spirit of freedom governs our conduct; not only in public affairs, but also in managing the small tensions of every day life, where we show no animosity at our neighbor's choice of pleasures, nor cast aspersions that may hurt even if they do not harm.”
― Pericles

“Time is the wisest counselor of all”
― Pericles

“What I fear is not the enemy’s strategy but our own mistakes.”
― Pericles

“When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the law; when it it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which the man possesses.”
― Pericles

“When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the law; it it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability which the man possesses.”
― Pericles

“The greatest glory of a woman is to be least talked about among men, whether in praise or blame.”
― Pericles

“Hay que ayudar a los amigos, pero sin ofender a los dioses".”
― Pericles