"Phocion compared the speeches of Leosthenes to cypress-trees. "They are tall," said he, "and comely, but bear no fruit.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"For my part, I had rather be the first man among these fellows than the second man in Rome."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"An old doting fool, with one foot already in the grave."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"To one that promised to give him hardy cocks that would die fighting, "Prithee," said Cleomenes, "give me cocks that will kill fighting.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Even a nod from a person who is esteemed is of more force than a thousand arguments or studied sentences from others."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Themistocles said to Antiphales, "Time, young man, has taught us both a lesson.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Laughing at his own son, who got his mother, and by his mother's means his father also, to indulge him, he told him that he had the most power of any one in Greece: "For the Athenians command the rest of Greece, I command the Athenians, your mother commands me, and you command your mother.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Lycurgus the Lacedæmonian brought long hair into fashion among his countrymen, saying that it rendered those that were handsome more beautiful, and those that were deformed more terrible. To one that advised him to set up a democracy in Sparta, "Pray," said Lycurgus, "do you first set up a democracy in your own house.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Menenius Agrippa concluded at length with the celebrated fable: "It once happened that all the other members of a man mutinied against the stomach, which they accused as the only idle, uncontributing part in the whole body, while the rest were put to hardships and the expense of much labour to supply and minister to its appetites.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Being summoned by the Athenians out of Sicily to plead for his life, Alcibiades absconded, saying that that criminal was a fool who studied a defence when he might fly for it."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Marius said, "I see the cure is not worth the pain.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Themistocles being asked whether he would rather be Achilles or Homer, said, "Which would you rather be,--a conqueror in the Olympic games, or the crier that proclaims who are conquerors?""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Cicero called Aristotle a river of flowing gold, and said of Plato's Dialogues, that if Jupiter were to speak, it would be in language like theirs."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"After the battle in Pharsalia, when Pompey was fled, one Nonius said they had seven eagles left still, and advised to try what they would do. "Your advice," said Cicero, "were good if we were to fight jackdaws.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Spintharus, speaking in commendation of Epaminondas, says he scarce ever met with any man who knew more and spoke less."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Statesmen are not only liable to give an account of what they say or do in public, but there is a busy inquiry made into their very meals, beds, marriages, and every other sportive or serious action."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Anacharsis said a man's felicity consists not in the outward and visible favours and blessings of Fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"The great god Pan is dead."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"What is bigger than an elephant? But this also is become man's plaything, and a spectacle at public solemnities; and it learns to skip, dance, and kneel."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"When Hermodotus in his poems described Antigonus as the son of Helios, "My valet-de-chambre," said he, "is not aware of this.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Both Empedocles and Heraclitus held it for a truth that man could not be altogether cleared from injustice in dealing with beasts as he now does."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"A physician, after he had felt the pulse of Pausanias, and considered his constitution, saying, "He ails nothing," "It is because, sir," he replied, "I use none of your physic.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"And Archimedes, as he was washing, thought of a manner of computing the proportion of gold in King Hiero's crown by seeing the water flowing over the bathing-stool. He leaped up as one possessed or inspired, crying, "I have found it! Eureka!""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Athenodorus says hydrophobia, or water-dread, was first discovered in the time of Asclepiades."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Cato said, "I had rather men should ask why my statue is not set up, than why it is.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Said Scopas of Thessaly, "We rich men count our felicity and happiness to lie in these superfluities, and not in those necessary things.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Said Periander, "Hesiod might as well have kept his breath to cool his pottage.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Leo Byzantius said, "What would you do, if you saw my wife, who scarce reaches up to my knees? . . . Yet," went he on, "as little as we are, when we fall out with each other, the city of Byzantium is not big enough to hold us.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"When the candles are out all women are fair."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Alexander was wont to say, "Were I not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"No man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would be bricks by chance and fortune."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"When Demaratus was asked whether he held his tongue because he was a fool or for want of words, he replied, "A fool cannot hold his tongue.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man's oration,--nay, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in its place is a work extremely troublesome."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"And when the physician said, "Sir, you are an old man," "That happens," replied Pausanias, "because you never were my doctor.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Socrates said he was not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"A traveller at Sparta, standing long upon one leg, said to a Lacedæmonian, "I do not believe you can do as much." "True," said he, "but every goose can.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Agesilaus was very fond of his children; and it is reported that once toying with them he got astride upon a reed as upon a horse, and rode about the room; and being seen by one of his friends, he desired him not to speak of it till he had children of his own."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"As Meander says, "For our mind is God;" and as Heraclitus, "Man's genius is a deity.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Anaximander says that men were first produced in fishes, and when they were grown up and able to help themselves were thrown up, and so lived upon the land."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Socrates said, "Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"For to err in opinion, though it be not the part of wise men, is at least human."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Pythagoras, when he was asked what time was, answered that it was the soul of this world."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"It was the saying of Bion, that though the boys throw stones at frogs in sport, yet the frogs do not die in sport but in earnest."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Like watermen, who look astern while they row the boat ahead."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"As those persons who despair of ever being rich make little account of small expenses, thinking that little added to a little will never make any great sum."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Antiphanes said merrily, that in a certain city the cold was so intense that words were congealed as soon as spoken, but that after some time they thawed and became audible; so that the words spoken in winter were articulated next summer."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"That proverbial saying, "Ill news goes quick and far.""

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"We are more sensible of what is done against custom than against Nature."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"Lysander, when Dionysius sent him two gowns, and bade him choose which he would carry to his daughter, said, "She can choose best," and so took both away with him."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain

"The general himself ought to be such a one as can at the same time see both forward and backward."

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 9th ed. (Little, Brown, 1905), public domain