Pericles Quotes

12 Sourced Quotes

Wait for that wisest of all counselors, Time.

Pericles
Your great glory is not to be inferior to what God has made you, and the greatest glory of a woman is to be least talked about by men, whether they are praising you or criticizing you.

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

Pericles
What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.

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

Pericles
The whole Earth is the Sepulchre of famous men; and their story is not graven only on Stone over their native earth, but lives on far away, without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men's lives.

Pericles
Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.

Pericles
Taking everything together then, I declare that our city is an education to Greece.
Of Athens

Pericles
We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all.
Pericles commenting the participation of Athenian citizens in politics. Sometimes misquoted as 'Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you'

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

Pericles
Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.

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

Pericles