Athenians Quotes - Page 2

• ... the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy.

  John F. Kennedy

  Atheism, Citizens, Crime

  Address to the American Newspaper Publishers, delivered 27 April 1961, Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York

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• The Andrians were the first of the islanders to refuse Themistocles' demand for money. He had put it to them that they would be unable to avoid paying, because the Athenians had the support of two powerful deities, one called Persuasion and the other Compulsion.The Andrians had replied that Athens was lucky to have two such useful gods, who were obviously responsible for her wealth and greatness; unfortunately, they themselves, in their small & inadequate land, had two utterly useless deities, who refused to leave the island and insisted on staying; and their names were Poverty and Inability.

  Herodotus

  Powerful, Greatness, Land

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• [M]ore than they wanted freedom, the Athenians wanted security. Yet they lost everything-security, comfort, and freedom. This was because they wanted not to give to society, but for society to give to them. The freedom they were seeking was freedom from responsibility. It is no wonder, then, that they ceased to be free. In the modern world, we should recall the Athenians' dire fate whenever we confront demands for increased state paternalism.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Responsibility, Fate, Giving

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• We have the ability to be the Athens of modern times as opposed to the militaristic Sparta. I remind you that the Athenians wrote poetry. The Spartans did not.

  Rita Mae Brown

  Sparta, Athens, Modern

  Rita Mae Brown (1987). “Poems”

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• In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever character composed, passion never fails to wrest the sceptre from reason. Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Character, Passion, Citizens

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, J.R. Pole (2005). “The Federalist”, p.301, Hackett Publishing

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• The great thing about writing about the ancient Spartans or Athenians is that so much knowledge is no longer extant that no one, except maybe a Cambridge or Oxford don, can call you out and prove you wrong.

  Steven Pressfield

  Writing, Oxford, Ancient

  Interview with Will Duquette, www.patheos.com. May 21, 2014.

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• ... Athenians are addicted to innovation. They are daring beyond their judgment they toil on with little opportunity for enjoying, being ever engaged in getting, they were born into the world to take no rest themselves, and to give none to others.

  Thucydides

  Opportunity, Giving, Innovation

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• To awaken a man who is deceived as to his own merit is to do him as bad a turn as that done to the Athenian madman who was happy in believing that all the ships touching at the port belonged to him.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Believe, Men, Touching

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• Imperialism was genuinely popular among Athenians who would expect to share in its profits, even if only indirectly and collectively, and not to have to bear its burdens.

  John Roberts

  Bears, Imperialism, Burden

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• The wide difference between the two characters, the slowness and want of energy of the Spartans as contrasted with the dash and enterprise of their opponents, proved of the greatest service, especially to a maritime empire like Athens. Indeed this was shown by the Syracusans, who were most like the Athenians in character, and also most successful in combating them.

  Thucydides

  Character, Successful, Two

  Thucydides (1978). “The history of the Peloponnesian War: illustrated with maps from the 1820 Oxford edition”

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• The Athenian democracy suffered much from that narrowness of patriotism which is the ruin of all nations.

  H. G. Wells

  Democracy, Ruins, Nations

  H. G. Wells, J. F. Horrabin, William Ross (2004). “The Outline of History: Prehistory to the Roman Republic”, p.418, Barnes & Noble Publishing

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• Mars, when guilty of homicide, and set free from the charge of murder by the Athenians through favour, lest he should appear to be too fierce and savage, committed adultery with Venus.

  Lactantius

  Savages, Mars, Venus

  Lactantius (2012). “The Sacred Writings of Lactantius (Annotated Edition)”, p.40, Jazzybee Verlag

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• What is the foundation of that interest all men feel in Greek history, letters, art, and poetry, in all its periods, from the Heroic or Homeric age down to the domestic life of the Athenians and Spartans, four or five centuries later? What but this, that every man passes personally through a Grecian period.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Art, Men, Greek

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.150, Harvard University Press

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• But this is not difficult, O Athenians! to escape death; but it is much more difficult to avoid depravity, for it runs swifter than death. And now I, being slow and aged, am overtaken by the slower of the two; but my accusers, being strong and active, have been overtaken by the swifter, wickedness. And now I depart, condemned by you to death; but they condemned by truth, as guilty of iniquity and injustice: and I abide my sentence, and so do they. These things, perhaps, ought so to be, and I think that they are for the best.

  Plato

  Running, Strong, Thinking

  Plato (0101). “Apology, Crito and Phaedo of Socrates”, p.29, Prabhat Prakashan

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• O Athenians, what toil do I undergo to please you!

  Alexander the Great

  Toil, Pleasure, Please

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations V2: Drawn From The Speech And Literature Of All Nations, Ancient And Modern (1922)". Book by Kate Louise Roberts, 2010.

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• Men keep their agreements when it is an advantage to both parties not to break them; and I shall so frame my laws that it will be evident to the Athenians that it will be for their interest to observe them.

  Solon

  Party, Men, Law

  "Ancient Civilizations". Book by George Shelley Hughs, p. 596, 1896.

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• Ares always reemerges from the chaos. It will never go away. Athenian civilization defends itself from the forces of Ares with metis, or technology. Technology is built on science. Science is like the alchemists' uroburos, continually eating its own tail. The process of science doesn't work unless young scientists have the freedom to attack and tear down old dogmas, to engage in an ongoing Titanomachia. Science flourishes where art and free speech flourish.

  Neal Stephenson

  Art, Technology, Civilization

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• Socrates said he was not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

  Plutarch

  Patriotic, Greek, Patriotism

  Plutarch (1888). “Morals: Ethical Essays. Translated, with Notes and Index. by Arthur Richard Shilleto”

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• The members of the department became like the Athenians who, according to the Apostle Paul, "spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing." Anyone who thought he had a bright idea rushed out to try it out on a colleague. Groups of two or more could be seen every day in offices, before blackboards or even in corridors, arguing vehemently about these 'brain storms.' It is doubtful whether any paper ever emerged for publication that had not run the gauntlet of such criticism. The whole department thus became far greater than the sum of its individual members.

  Joel Henry Hildebrand

  Running, Science, Ideas

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• Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.

  James Madison

  Mob Rule, Citizens, Assembly

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.272, Coventry House Publishing

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• [Regarding legislative assemblies,] the number ought at most to be kept within a certain limit, in order to avoid the confusion and intemperance of a multitude. In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever characters composed, passion never fails to wrest the scepter from reason. Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.

  James Madison

  Character, Passion, Order

  James Madison, John Jay (1901). “The Federalist: A Commentary on the Constitution of the United States”

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• Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, he began at the moment that it broke out, believing that it would be a great war, and more memorable than any that had preceded it.

  Thucydides

  War, Believe, Memorable

  Thucydides, Sir Richard Winn Livingstone (1960). “The History of the Peloponnesian War”, Oxford University Press, USA

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• We need money, for sure, Athenians, and without money nothing can be done that ought to be done.

  Demosthenes

  Needs, Done, Need Money

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• Frequently consider the connection of all things in the universe. .. We should not say 'I am an Athenian' or 'I am a Roman' but 'I am a citizen of the Universe.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Connections, Citizens, Ethics

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• What made the war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta.

  Thucydides

  War, History, Growth

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