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