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

Wait for that wisest of all counselors, Time.

Trees, though they are cut and lopped, grow up again quickly, but if men are destroyed, it is not easy to get them again.

It is right to endure with resignation what the gods send, and to face one’s enemies with courage.

The marketplace is democratic.

Your empire is now like a tyranny: it may have been wrong to take it; it is certainly dangerous to let it go.

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.

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.

Future ages will wonder at us, as the present age wonders at us now.

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

A woman’s greatest glory is to be little talked about by men, whether for good or ill.

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.

Although only a few may originate a policy, we are all able to judge it.

For famous men have the whole earth as their memorial.

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

Our love of what is beautiful does not lead to extravagance; our love of the things of the mind does not make us soft.

Better die standing than live kneeling.

The mind always fails first, not the body. The secret is to make your mind work for you, not against you.

War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it.

When you compete against everyone else, no one wants to help you. But when you compete against yourself, everyone wants to help you.

If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon. And if you’re not flexible, you’ll pound your head against the wall and you won’t see a different solution to a problem you’re trying to solve.

How can anyone be against love?

There is nothing more stimulating than a case where everything goes against you.

There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.