"I say that as a city we are the school of Hellas, while I doubt if the world can produce a man who, where he has only himself to depend upon, is equal to so many emergencies, and graced by so happy a versatility, as the Athenian...For Athens alone of her contemporaries is found when tested to be greater than her reputation, and alone gives no occasion to her assailants to blush at the antagonist by whom they have been worsted, or to her subjects to question her title by merit to rule."
-Pericles, funeral oration
My favorite version of Pericles comes from William Messner-Loebs "Epicurus the Sage". Trust me, find a copy and read it.
