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"We are lovers of beauty without extravagance, and lovers of wisdom without unmanliness. Wealth to us is not mere material for vainglory but an opportunity for achievement; and poverty we think it no disgrace to acknowledge but a real degradation to make no effort to overcome."
"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."
"We secure our friends not by accepting favors but by doing them."
Thucydides, Peloponnesian War II, 40
Wise words of motivation of assorted variety offered in the hope to cause fewer words written or said without prior profound cerebration.
BTG
I offer a quote from a lecture I gave in 2006, which soundly reinforces your sentiment:
ReplyDelete'Speeches about courage or manliness, Pericles warns, are inherently flawed, and could not please everyone that hears them. A distinction is raised between rhetorical constructions of virtue, and actual virtue, and there is an explicit awareness of the danger of saying too much, or not saying enough. What we may learn, through rhetoric, about virtue, courage, manliness or heroism, may not actually teach us anything about the reality of those things. It is a warning not to trust speech, only action. The implications are weighty, both for the historical rendering of heroes past and for the entire construction of the Thucydidean narrative.'
I just read a book about him, rather interesting chap; too bad he is not on the main stream reading list. Also tweeted your blog address, more ladies should follow you, really enjoying your site.
ReplyDeleteHousewife Bliss,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your comments and tweets. I'm glad you are enjoying the blog. I am always open to suggestions.
BTG