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

We do not need the praises of a Homer, or of anyone else whose words may delight us for the moment, but the estimation of facts will fall short of what is really true.

Those who can think, but cannot express what they think, place themselves at the level of those who cannot think.

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.

To face calamity with a mind as unclouded as may be, and quickly to react against it-that in a city and in an individual-is real strength.

Having knowledge but lacking the power to express it clearly is no better than never having any ideas at all.

For the whole earth is the tomb of famous men; not only are they commemorated by columns and inscriptions in their own country, but in foreign lands there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them, graven not on stone but in the hearts of men.