We do not imitate, but are a model to others.

As for poverty, no one need be ashamed to admit it, the real shame is in not taking practical measures to escape from it.

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.

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.

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.

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