Pericles Birthdate: 494 BC Date of death: 429 BC Pericles was a prominent and influential Greek statesman, orator and general of Athens during its golden age – specifically the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars.
He was descended, through his mother, from the powerful and historically influential Alcmaeonid family. Pericles had such a profound influence on Athenian society that Thucydides, a contemporary historian, acclaimed him as "the first citizen of Athens". Pericles turned the Delian League into an Athenian empire, and led his countrymen during the first two years of the Peloponnesian War. The period during which he led Athens, roughly from 461 to 429 BC, is sometimes known as the "Age of Pericles", though the period thus denoted can include times as early as the Persian Wars, or as late as the next century.
Pericles promoted the arts and literature; it is principally through his efforts that Athens acquired the reputation of being the educational and cultural center of the ancient Greek world. He started an ambitious project that generated most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis. This project beautified and protected the city, exhibited its glory, and gave work to the people. Pericles also fostered Athenian democracy to such an extent that critics call him a populist. He, along with several members of his family, succumbed to the Plague of Athens in 429 BC, which weakened the city-state during a protracted conflict with Sparta.
„What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.“
— Pericles
„Time is the wisest counselor of all.“
— Pericles
As quoted in Until Tomorrow Comes (1979) by Orville E. Kelly, p. 160
„They gave her their lives, to her and to all of us, and for their own selves they won praises that never grow old, the most splendid of sepulchers — not the sepulchre in which their bodies are laid, but where their glory remains eternal in men's minds, always there on the right occasion to stir others to speech or to action. For famous men have the whole earth as their memorial: it is not only the inscriptions on their graves in their own country that mark them out; no, in foreign lands also, not in any visible form but in people's hearts, their memory abides and grows. It is for you to try to be like them. Make up your minds that happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.“
— Pericles
Book 2, chapter 44: Funeral oration, as translated at "In Defense of Democracy"
„Future ages will wonder at us, as the present age wonders at us now.“
— Pericles
As quoted in Eternal Greece (1961) by Rex Warner, p. 34
„Nor is it any longer possible for you to give up this empire … Your empire is now like a tyranny: it may have been wrong to take it; it is certainly dangerous to let it go.“
— Pericles
Book 2, chapter 63: Pericles' third speech
„Our love of what is beautiful does not lead to extravagance; our love of the things of the mind does not make us soft. We regard wealth as something to be properly used, rather than as something to boast about. As for poverty, no one need be ashamed to admit it, the real shame is in not taking practical measures to escape from it.“
— Pericles
Book 2.40
„Although only a few may originate a policy, we are all able to judge it.“
— Pericles
As quoted in The Open Society and Its Enemies by Karl Popper (1966). Book II, chapter 40.
„Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.“
— Pericles
As quoted in Homage to Greece
„Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves“
— Pericles
2.37 History of the Peloponnesian War
„But the bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it.“
— Pericles
Pericles' Funeral Oration History of the Peloponnesian War
„What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.“
— Pericles
As quoted in Flicker to Flame : Living with Purpose, Meaning, and Happiness (2006) by Jeffrey Thompson Parker, p. 118 This quotation is likely a modern paraphrasing of a longer passage from Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, II.43.3.
„Hatred and unpopularity at the moment have fallen to the lot of all who have aspired to rule others; but where odium must be incurred, true wisdom incurs it for the highest objects. Hatred also is short-lived; but that which makes the splendour of the present and the glory of the future remains forever unforgotten. Make your decision, therefore, for glory then and honour now, and attain both objects by instant and zealous effort: do not send heralds to Lacedaemon, and do not betray any sign of being oppressed by your present sufferings, since they whose minds are least sensitive to calamity, and whose hands are most quick to meet it, are the greatest men and the greatest communities.“
— Pericles
Book 2 History of the Peloponnesian War
