We Greeks believe that a man who takes no part in public affairs is not merely lazy, but good for nothing

The peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learned to cultivate the olive and the vine.

Hope is an expensive commodity. It makes better sense to be prepared.

For we both alike know that into the discussion of human affairs the question of justice enters only where the pressure of necessity is equal, and that the powerful exact what they can, and the weak grant what they must.

The strong do what they have to do and the weak accept what they have to accept.

They whose minds are least sensitive to calamity, and whose hands are most quick to meet it, are the greatest men and the greatest communities.

He passes through life most securely who has least reason to reproach himself with complaisance toward his enemies.