Disprover that all power corrupts
One of the greatest statesman and leaders in all of history, Pericles disproves or is at least an exception to the adage “power corrupts.” Though not without critics (including Plato); as general, politician untainted by corruption, orator and philosopher, he helped establish a Greek golden age, increased the power of democracy, and made Athens famous as the educational and cultural center of the ancient world. He also started projects that built most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis including the Parthenon.
Lineages
Greek Politicians
Thucydides
“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.”
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“Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.”
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“To face calamity with an unclouded mind and quickly respond—in both a government and an individual—represents real strength.”
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“For the wise, the whole earth becomes their tomb—an unwritten memorial commemorated in the hearts of humanity.”
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“No one needs to be ashamed of poverty. The real shame is not taking practical measures to escape from it.”
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“Those who make the most appealing display, hide the most deceit.”
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“We are a free democracy, but we are obedient. We obey the laws, especially those which protect the oppressed. We do not allow absorption in our own affairs to interfere with participation in the city's. We differ from other states in regarding the man who holds aloof from public life as useless, yet we yield to none in independence of spirit and complete self-reliance.”
from Thucydides
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“The age of Pericles was the happiest and most glorious time in the history of Athens... These achievements are perhaps the most astonishing thing in all history.”
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“PIcture Anaxagoras, who did the work of Darwin for the Greeks, and turned Pericles from a wine-pulling politician into a thinker and a statesman.”
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