Pericles Quotes

10 quotes from 3 authors

Pericles commands attention: his sharp remarks on fame, memory, and the art of speech echo through history. This brief set gathers his witty lines—like the cheeky comment on women’s glory—and reflections on his legacy, offering a taste of debate. Explore Ancient Greece, Athenian Democracy, and Classical Philosophy.

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The chief glory of a woman is not to be talked of, said Pericles, himself a much-talked-of-man.

Virginia Woolf

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“Fear is debilitating, distracting, tiring, and often irrational. Pericles understood this completely, and he was able to use the power of perspective…

Ryan Holiday

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“my Clodius, how little your countrymen know of the true versatility of a Pericles, of the true witcheries of an Aspasia!”

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

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I've never read it because I'd like to see one Shakespeare play that I don't know what happens. I close my ears…

Andre Braugher

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“I thought of Pericles' speech to the families of the Athenian war dead, in which he said, "What you leave behind is…

Eric Greitens

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The epoch of doubt and transition during which the Greeks passed from the dim fancies of mythology to the fierce light of…

Lord Acton

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“Periclean Greeks employed the term idiotis , without any connotation of stupidity or subnormality, to mean simply 'a person indifferent to public…

Christopher Hitchens

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“Pericles, he reflected, was a sad case. He'd been a postman all his life, a solid, reliable worker, until one Christmas when…

Alison Fell

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“For the whole earth is the tomb of famous men; not only are they commemorated by columns and inscriptions in their own…

Thucydides

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“It was Ephialtes, in fact, who initiated democratic reforms that involved paying citizens for jury service. Shortly afterwards, he was assassinated (allegedly…

Guy Standing

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