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

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.

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.

An Athenian citizen does not neglect his state because he takes care of his own household; even those of us who are engaged in business have a very fair idea of politics. We do not regard a man who takes no interest in public affairs as harmless. We do not say that such a man 'minds his own business'. Rather we say he has no business here at all.

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

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

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.