Athens Quotes

• Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts And eloquence.

  John Milton

  Mother, Art, Eye

  Paradise Regained bk. 4, l. 240 (1671)

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• A great city, whose image dwells in the memory of man, is the type of some great idea. Rome represents conquest; Faith hovers over the towers of Jerusalem; and Athens embodies the pre-eminent quality of the antique world, Art.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Art, Memories, Men

  Benjamin Disraeli (1844). “Coningsby, etc”, p.113

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• Let there be light! Said Liberty , And like sunrise from the sea, Athens arose!

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Light, Sea, Sunrise

  'Hellas' (1822) l. 682

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• I am a citizen, not of Athens, or Greece, but of the world.

  Socrates

  History, Citizens, World

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• My good friend, you are a citizen of Athens, a city which is very great and very famous for its wisdom and power - are you not ashamed of caring so much for the making of money and for fame and prestige, when you neither think nor care about wisdom and truth and the improvement of your soul?

  Plato

  Philosophical, Good Friend, Caring

  Plato (1949). “Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito, and the Death Scene from Phaedo”

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• At Athens, wise men propose, and fools dispose.

  Alcuin

  Wise, Men, Stupid People

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• Many of our ideas of democracy, so much of our literature and philosophy and science can be traced back to roots right here in Athens.

  Barack Obama

  Philosophy, Ideas, Roots

  Remarks by President Obama and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece in Joint Press Conference, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. November 15, 2016.

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• When the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.

  Edith Hamilton

  Freedom, Responsibility, Libertarian Party

  Edith Hamilton (1964). “The Ever-Present Past”

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• If Athens shall appear great to you, consider then that her glories were purchased by valiant men, and by men who learned their duty.

  Pericles

  Men, Glory, Valiant

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• How great are the dangers I face to win a good name in Athens.

  Alexander the Great

  Winning, Names, Faces

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• Earth proudly wears the Parthenon As the best gem upon her zone.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Earth, Parthenon, Gems

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.53, Delphi Classics

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• And thence from Athens turn away our eyes To seek new friends and stranger companies.

  William Shakespeare

  Eye, New Friends, Stranger

  William Shakespeare, Edmond Malone, James Boswell, Mr. Theobald (Lewis), Samuel Johnson (1821). “The Plays and Poems of William Shakspeare: With the Corrections and Illustrations of Various Commentators”, p.189

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• So far has Athens left the rest of mankind behind in thought and expression that her pupils have become the teachers of the world, and she has made the name of Hellas distinctive no longer of race but of intellect, and the title of Hellene a badge of education rather than of common descent.

  Isocrates

  Teacher, Race, Expression

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• Gone, glimmering through the dream of things that were.

  Lord Byron

  Dream, Gone, Greece

  Lord Byron, Lord George Gordon Byron (2013). “Childe Harold's Pilgrimage”, p.45, Cambridge University Press

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• When will there be justice in Athens? There will be justice in Athens when those who are not injured are as outraged as those who are.

  Thucydides

  Justice, Injured, Outraged

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• Athens' biggest worry was the sheer recklessness of its own democratic government. A simple majority of the citizenry, urged on and incensed by clever demagogues, might capriciously send out military forces in unnecessary and exhausting adventures.

  Thucydides

  Clever, Military, Adventure

  Thucydides, Victor Davis Hanson, Robert B. Strassler (2008). “The Landmark Thucydides”, p.19, Simon and Schuster

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• In cities like Athens, poor houses lined narrow and tortuous streets in spite of luxurious public buildings.

  Stephen Gardiner

  Cities, House, Building

  Stephen Gardiner (2002). “The House: Its Origins and Evolution”, Ivan R Dee

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• An Aristotle was but the rubbish of an Adam, and Athens but the rudiments of Paradise.

  Robert South

  Paradise, Rubbish, Adam

  'Sermons' vol. 1, no. 2

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• The commonwealth of Athens is become a forest of beasts.

  William Shakespeare

  Politics, Forests, Beast

  William Shakespeare, Samuel Weller Singer, William Watkiss Lloyd, John Thompson, Thomas Stothard (1856). “Titus Andronicus. Romeo and Juliet. Timon of Athens. Julius Caesar”, p.354

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• I am not going to let Athens affect the rest of my life.

  Paula Radcliffe

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• As in Athens, the right to participate was restricted to men, just as it was also in all later democracies and republics until the twentieth century.

  Robert A. Dahl

  Men, Tyrants, Democracy

  Robert A. Dahl (2015). “On Democracy”, p.13, Yale University Press

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• You must understand what the Parthenon Marbles mean to us. They are our pride. They are our sacrifices. They are our noblest symbol of excellence. They are a tribute to the democratic philosophy. They are our aspirations and our name. They are the essence of Greekness.

  Melina Mercouri

  Philosophy, Mean, Patriotic

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• The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Sparta, made war inevitable.

  Thucydides

  War, Growth, Alarms

  Thucydides, Victor Davis Hanson, Robert B. Strassler (2008). “The Landmark Thucydides”, p.16, Simon and Schuster

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• Athens is like a sluggish horse, and I am the gadfly trying to sting it into life.

  Jostein Gaarder

  Horse, Trying, Gadflies

  Jostein Gaarder (2010). “Sophie's World”, p.64, Hachette UK

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• If one doubts whether Grecian valor and patriotism are not a fiction of the poets, he may go to Athens and see still upon the walls of the temple of Minerva the circular marks made by the shields taken from the enemy in the Persian war, which were suspended there. We have not far to seek for living and unquestionable evidence. The very dust takes shape and confirms some story which we had read.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Wall, War, Taken

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.178, Xist Publishing

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