people-from-athens

"Δημοσθένης ἐμὲ βούλεται διορθοῦν, ἡ ὗς τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν."

"Ὅτι δι' αἵματος, οὐ διὰ μέλανος, τοὺς νόμους ὁ Δράκων ἔγραψεν."

"Phormio, fearing that his sailors might be frightened, and observing that they were gathering in knots and were evidently apprehensive of the enemy's numbers, resolved to call them together and inspirit them by a suitable admonition. He had always been in the habit of telling them and training their minds to believe that no superiority of hostile forces could justify them in retreating. And it had long been a received opinion among the sailors that, as Athenians, they were bound to face any number of Peloponnesian ships. When, however, he found them dispirited by the sight which met their eyes, he determined to revive their drooping courage, and, having assembled them together, he spoke as follows:'Soldiers, I have summoned you because I see that you are alarmed at the numbers of the enemy, and I would not have you dismayed when there is nothing to fear. In the first place, the reason why they have pro-vided a fleet so disproportionate is because we have defeated them already, and they can see themselves that they are no match for us; next, as to the courage which they suppose to be native to them and which is the ground of their confidence when they attack us, that reliance is merely inspired by the success which their experience on land usually gives them, and will, as they fancy, equally ensure them by sea. But the superiority which we allow to them on land we may justly claim for ourselves at sea; for in courage at least we are their equals, and the superior confidence of either of us is really based upon greater experience. The Lacedaemonians lead the allies for their own honour and glory; the majority of them are dragged into battle against their will; if they were not compelled they would never have ventured after so great a defeat to fight again at sea. So that you need not fear their valour; they are far more afraid of you and with better reason, not only because you have already defeated them, but because they cannot believe that you would oppose them at all if you did not mean to do something worthy of that great victory. For most men when, like these Peloponnesians, they are a match for their enemies rely more upon their strength than upon their courage; but those who go into battle against far superior numbers and under no constraint must be inspired by some extraordinary force of resolution. Our enemies are well aware of this, and are more afraid of our surprising boldness than they would be if our forces were less out of proportion to their own. Many an army before now has been overthrown by smaller numbers owing to want of experience; some too through cowardice; and from both these faults we are certainly free. If I can help I shall not give battle in the gulf, or even sail into it. For I know that where a few vessels which are skilfully handled and are better sailers engage with a larger number which are badly managed the confined space is a disadvantage. Unless the captain of a ship see his enemy a good way off he cannot come on or strike properly; nor can he retreat when he is pressed hard. The manœuvres suited to fast-sailing vessels, such as breaking of the line or returning to the charge, cannot be practised in a narrow space. The sea-fight must of necessity be reduced to a land-fight in which numbers tell. For all this I shall do my best to provide. Do you meanwhile keep order and remain close to your ships. Be prompt in taking your instructions, for the enemy is near at hand and watching us. In the moment of action remember the value of silence and order, which are always important in war, especially at sea. Repel the enemy in a spirit worthy of your former exploits. There is much at stake; for you will either destroy the rising hope of the Peloponnesian navy, or bring home to Athens the fear of losing the sea. Once more I remind you that you have beaten most of the enemy's fleet already; and, once defeated, men do not meet the same dangers with their old spirit.'"

"Οὐ φροντὶς Ἱπποκλείδῃ. / Ou phrontìs Hippokleídēi."

"When he is with me, I confess that his arguments are so convincing that I quickly begin to imagine that they are my own."

"[...] when it is a question of foreign affairs, great international questions, I think that so long as I believe a thing is right or not right, I must insist upon its being done or not being done, because I am responsible before God."

"Constantinos must go, for he has betrayed Greece. But why should his son suffer for the folly of his father? The Crown Prince shares his father's guilt, but his younger sons are only boys, and they can be trained to become worthy Kings of Greece. It is only on condition that you preserve the dynasty that shall consent to return to Athens."

"The Emperor knows that my personal sympathies and my political opinions draw me to his side [...] After deep reflection it is, however, impossible for me to see how I could be of service to him by mobilizing at once my Army [...] I am forced to think that neutrality is imposed on us which may be useful to him, and I assure him that I will not touch any of my neighbours who are his friends, as long as they do not touch our local Balkan interests. [...] What I ask for to-day is to put into execution that which we have so often discussed together."

"Χαίρετε, νικῶμεν."

"Even in your present condition, Athenians and allies, you should still have hope—in the past men have been saved from even worse straits than these—and not blame yourselves too much either for your reverses or for your present unmerited miseries. I myself, who have the advantage of none of you in strength of body—nay, you see how [ am afflicted by my disease—and who was once thought, perhaps, to be inferior to no one in good fortune as regards both my private life and my career in general, aim now involved in the same danger as the meanest among you. And yet my life has been spent in the performance of many a religious duty toward the gods and many a just and blameless action towards men. Wherefore, in spite of all, my hope for the future is still confident, and our calamities do not frighten me as much as they might well have done. Perhaps they may even abate; for our enemies have had good fortune enough, and if we have roused the jealousy of any of the gods by our expedition we have already been punished sufficiently. Others have ere now, we know, gone against their neighbours, and after acting as men will act, have suffered what men can bear. It is therefore reasonable that we also should now hope that the divine dispensations will be more kindly towards us—for we are now more deserving of the gods’ pity than of their jealousy—and, furthermore you should, when you look upon yourselves and see what fine hoplites you are and what a multitude you are when marching in battle array, not be too greatly dismayed; nay, remember that wherever you establish yourselves you are at onee a city, and that in all Sicily there is no other city which could either sustain an attack from you or drive you out if you once made a settlement anywhere. And as to the march, you yourselves must see to it that it is safe and orderly, and each one of you must have no other thought than this—that the place, wherever it may be, in which yon will be foreed to fight, will be, if you conquer, both your country and your fortress. And we must make haste upon our journey both night and day alike, for such supplies as we have are scanty; and if we reach some friendly place in the country of the Sicels—and we can still depend upon them because of their fear of the Syracusans—then only you may consider that you are in security. Directions have been sent ahead to the Sicels that they are to meet us and bring provisions with them. Know the whole truth, fellow-soldiers: you must of necessity be brave men, since there is no place near at hand which you can reach in safety if you are cowards ; and if you escape your enemies now, the rest of you will win all that you surely long to see once more, and those who are Athenians will raise up again, however fallen, the great power of their State; for it is men that make a State, not walls nor ships devoid of men."

"Καὶ ὑμῖν δέ, ὦ ἑταῖροι, λέγω ὅτι οὐδέν ἐστιν ὀφθαλμῶν οὕτως εὐφραντικὸν ὡς γυναικὸς κάλλος. ὁ γοῦν τοῦ τραγικοῦ Χαιρήμονος Οἰνεὺς περὶ παρθένων τινῶν διηγούμενος ὧν ἐθεᾶτό φησιν ἐν τῷ ὁμωνύμῳ δράματι:Ἔκειτο γὰρ ἡ μὲν λευκὸν εἰς σεληνόφως φαίνουσα μαστὸν λελυμένης ἐπωμίδος, τῆς δ᾽ αὖ χορεία: λαγόνα τὴν ἀριστερὰν ἔλυσε: γυμνή δ᾽ αἰθέρος θεάμασιν ζῶσαν γραφὴν ἔφαινε: χρῶμα δ᾽ ὄμμασι λευκὸν μελαίνης ἔργον ἀντηύγει σκιᾶς. ἄλλη δὲ ἐγύμνου καλλίχειρας ὠλένας, ἄλλης προσαμπέχουσα θῆλυν αὐχένα: ἡ δ᾽ ῥαγέντων χλανιδίων ὑπὸ πτύχας ἔφαινε μηρόν, κἀξεπεσφραγίζετοὥρας γελώσης χωρὶς ἐλπίδων ἔρως. ὑπνωμέναι δ᾽ ἔπιπτον ἑλενίων ἔπι, ἴων τε μελανόφυλλα συγκλῶσαι πτερὰ κρόκον θ᾽, ὃς ἡλιῶδες εἰς ὑφάσματα πέπλων σκιᾶς εἴδωλον ἐξωμόργνυτο, ἕρσῃ δὲ θαλερὸς ἐκτραφεὶς ἀμάρακος λειμῶσι μαλακοὺς ἐξέτεινεν αὐχένας."

"Κλεύας Οὑτυμοκλεῖος, ὑπὲρ Θυρεᾶν δόρυ τείνας, κάτθανες ἀμφίλογον γᾶν ἀποτεμνόμενος."

"Τύχη τὰ θνητῶν πράγματ᾽, οὐκ εὐβουλία."

"Eὔβουλόν τέκνωσεν Ἀθηναγόρης περὶ πάντων ἥσσονα μὲν μοίρᾳ, κρέσσονα δ᾽ εὐλογίᾳ."

"C. B. Gurlick, tr. The Deipnosophists, Vol. 6, LCL 327 (1937)"

"F. C. Babbitt, tr. Pluarch's Moralia, Vol. 2, LCL 222 (1928)"

"A. Nauck, ed. Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (1888)"

"W. R. Paton, tr. Greek Anthology, Vol. 2, LCL 68 (1917)"

"Tοῖς Ἄργει Σπάρτηθεν ἶσαι χέρες, ἶσα δὲ τεύχη συμβάλομεν Θυρέαι δ᾽ ἦσαν ἄεθλα δορός. ἄμφω δ᾽ ἀπροφάσιστα τὸν οἴκαδε νόστον ἀφέντες οἰωνοῖς θανάτου λείπομεν ἀγγελίαν."

"The problem called "Uniatism," considered on the Orthodox side as a serious obstacle to unity, it not a solution, ecumenically speaking, but rather a theological and canonical problem to which the mixed commission has committed itself, by the will of its Churches, to address in a dialogue of charity and truth. However, the fact that the mixed commission has not yet reached an agreement on the basic theological concept of "Uniatism," and that because of this it has not produced a joint document with specific proposals and guidelines, does not mean an interruption of theological dialogue."

"Not many authors of general books about the Romans feel bound to discuss the alleged Trojan ancestry of their subject. In sharp contrast, hardly anyone outside the inner circle of tecnici seems able to write about the Etruscans without reflecting at length on the supposed mystery of their origins and on the solution that may or (as has long been beyond all doubt) may not lie in the East, specifically in Lydia. The reason for this is the erroneous but still widely held conviction that' the authority of Herodotus is involved."

"America was now a fully fledged deficit country, with a big trade deficit. But it was nothing like any other deficit country in the world. You see, Argentina, France, India, Greece needed to borrow dollars. America didn't need to borrow dollars to back up its currency. It didn't need to raise interests rates in order to prevent an exodus of dollars. The exodus of dollars was the foundation of American hegemony."

"A Chinese official once described to me globalization as something that was founded on a "dark deal" – that's how the Chinese official put it to me: a dark deal."

"What did they understand better than we did? They understood better than we did the new, audacious imperialism that was born in 1971, when Bretton Woods collapsed, and the United States dollar was no longer convertible to gold, prompting [President] Richard Nixon to send a message to Europeans, European governments, and the world's capitalists, saying: "The dollar, as of today, is your problem"."

"Why did the original Non-Aligned Movement fall prey to neo-imperialism's highest form, which is of course globalization, financialized capitalist globalization? The short answer is because capitalists, in practice, proved better internationalists than we were. Because they understood the nature of neo-imperialism better than we did, and that's why they won."

"And how right Nixon was. As the American – the US, I shouldn't say American – as the US deficit skyrocketed, the world was flooded with American dollars. And the banks, the central banks outside the United States, were forced to use these American dollars, since they could not be converted to gold anymore, as the reserves with which they backed their own currency."

"I call it techno-feudalism. I don’t call it capitalism anymore. We need to distinguish what was going on before 2008 from what was going on after 2008. Amazon is not a market; it’s a fiefdom. And it’s a fiefdom that’s connected to other fiefdoms, like Facebook, through the cloud services of Amazon, which are much greater and bigger than Amazon.com. It’s like a much more technologically advanced form of feudalism. And this is completely sustained by central bank money. So you have the combination of the king, the sovereign, the state, the central bank and the feudal lords, the techno-feudal lords. You can see that this system is constantly doubling-down on our extinction as a species. We had the pandemic and what did they do? More of the same... Jeff Bezos is getting rich not because of the profits of Amazon, but because of the increase of the share price. You’ve heard that he made what, $60 billion since the beginning of the pandemic? That’s not because of the profits of Amazon. Amazon is not that profitable. They have huge revenues, but they also have costs. The actual profits are nothing like that. It’s maybe one billion altogether, but he made 60! From the share price."

"While bringing about radical change is never easy, it is now abundantly clear that everything could be different. There is no longer any reason why we should accept things as they are."

"So moving from the oligarchic ownership model, where you buy as many votes… and this is how you should think of shares; shares are votes! And they are the votes in the assemblies where serious decisions are made. The serious decisions are not made in the Houses of Parliament. They are not made in the Congress or the Bundestag. They are made in the boards of directors and the general assemblies of Goldman Sachs, of Volkswagen, of Google, and so on. This is where the big decisions are being made, the decisions that determine your life, as well as life on the planet. So these are the votes that count. And to say that there is a market for votes and the rich can buy them is the end of democracy... We have an oligarchy with elections and the elections are bought by the oligarchy."

"A young man in Australia, a long, long time ago, well before we ever knew about WikiLeaks, had an idea: the idea of using Big Brother’s technology to create a large digital kind of mirror to turn to the face of Big Brother so as to enable us to be able to watch him watching us — a bit like turning the mirror to the face of the Medusa. WikiLeaks is based on that idea... WikiLeaks and Julian, as we know, have been persecuted for revealing to the world, especially to liberals, Democrats, Tories, social democrats — revealing to them the crimes against humanity perpetrated by our own elected leaders, in our name, behind our backs."

"The dollar suddenly became something like an IOU issued by the hegemon. Before long, the global financial system was backed by IOUs issued by a hegemon who decided what foreigners holding those IOUs could do or couldn’t do with the IOUs issued by the hegemon."

"In the United States you have the ridiculous situation where the Democratic Party is going to the people who voted for Trump saying you were duped by Putin, Putin stole the election through Facebook. (...) Did Putin try to influence the election in the United States? I'm sure he did. But I did too. I did, I really did. I did my best to influence the election and failed spectacularly and Putin had about the same impact that I had. This is really very important: we do not sacrifice good people to the ultra-right by treating them like morons and by demonizing them. This is crucial: we have to win the battle of ideas by treating people with respect independently of whether they agree or even like us or not."

"What is being offered to the Greek people is circuses with no bread. And the circuses are not even funny."

"We need to change the circumstances of people's lives, so we need investments. We need to push investment up because investment is what we need to create the good quality jobs that will create the incomes that will stop deflation: the markets won't do it on their own."

"They [the Chinese] are far more humanistic than the United States ever was. [...] Of course they're trying... they are peddling for influence, but they are non-interventionists. Absolutely non-interventionists in a way that Europeans, the West, has never managed to fathom. The Chinese never asked Apple to go to Shenzhen and produce all the iPhones, it was Steve Jobs that decided that. It was not China that went to Washington DC and demanded that they buy a third of your national debt. If they hadn't bought it, you would be in serious trouble. [...] When it comes to the influence of China outside its borders, it's quite remarkable that they don't seem to have any military ambitions. Instead of going into Africa with troops, colonially destroying the country, killing people like the West has done for the last hundred years, what they did was they went to Addis Ababa and they said to the government: "We can see you have problems with your infrastructure, we would like to build some new airports and upgrade your railway system, create a telephone system, and rebuild your roads. And we will do this all for free." No strings attached. "We don't want anything from you". And they did. Why did they do it? Because this is soft power."

"The world we live in is ruled by insiders... one of the first things said to me by a very high ranking American official.. when I was minister... you have a choice. You can be an insider or an outsider. If you are an outsider you'll retain your right to say anything you want, whatever you believe in but know that you're going to be persecuted, you're going to be villified and you'll be jettisoned. … On the other hand, you can chose to be an insider, to play the game... if you chose to be an insider you'll be given information that outsiders don't have, you'll be given... an opportunity... to make some... small tiny changes within the inside, but the one rule that you must respect, is that insiders do not tell outsiders the truth, and they do not turn against other insiders ... Julian [Assange]... created the technology that allowed the outsiders to get a glimpse within...and this is why he's being persecuted this way and one of the worst aspects of this persecution from a feminist perspective is that he's been accused of a crime for which he's never been charged, that turns progressives against feminists and feminists against progressives. This attempt by the establishment to turn progressives against themselves in order to prosecute someone who has... revealed their crimes is a heinous crime in itself...""

"I’d say DiEM25’s program is the only one worth fighting for. In the European elections we didn’t do well — we got just over 1 percent of the vote. But I should add, our total budget was just €85,000, a pitiful sum for a European election. People running to be the mayor of even a small town would spend many times that. Running on a principled position meant we didn’t have the infrastructure or spending power to do better. ... in the European elections our party, MeRA25, had to struggle against a systematic effort to silence us. We received absolutely no media exposure until the moment where media were forced by law to mention us and give us a little airtime. This was not true of Popular Unity or other smaller parties advocating Lexit [a left-wing exit from the EU]. …These are deeply conservative forces... There is nothing liberal about them: they are traditional, austerian class warriors against the working class... The regime did not feel threatened by parties advocating exit from the euro and EU."

"I would like to note that I have long considered myself a libertarian Marxist. This causes laughter and outrage from both Marxists and libertarians because they accuse me of being a hypocrite. If you are libertarian you cannot be a Marxist and if you are a Marxist you cannot be libertarian, they say. I see it differently."

"Why did he call it dark? Because it was founded on a dark, unspoken, implicit pact between America's ruling class and foreign capitalists and rentiers."

"I mean, the enclosures in Britain would never have happened without the king's army and without state brutality for pushing peasants off their ancestors' land and creating the commodification of labor, the commodification of land which then gave rise to capitalism."

"[F]aced with a choice between an agreement that is to the advantage of the peoples of Europe and one that bolsters their own power within the EU institutions at the expense of Europe's social economies, the Brussels establishment, and the powerful politicians behind them, will choose the latter every time. ... negotiations will be an exercise in futility and frustration. Barnier's two-phase negotiation announcement amounts to a rejection of the principle of … negotiation. He is, effectively, saying to you: First you give me everything I am asking for unconditionally (Phase 1) and only then will I hear what you want (Phase 2)."

"They [the Chinese] are immensely self-serving, as they would. But a the same time they have a quality that we need in Southern Europe. Actually, I think everyone needs to have foreign direct investment by patient inverstors. They are patient investors. They don't come in to grab an asset for speculative purposes. They come in order to create a base on which to build and build and build. And their horizon is 20-30 years. What Europe has not done with Greece is to do what the Chinese were prepared to do to come there with their workers, with their engineers, and actully do some serious work."

"Our view — that we’re not going to leave, and it’s up for the German government to leave, or to throw us out — is harder for them to deal with. The regime despised us because we neither want Grexit nor fear it. Our call unilaterally to implement perfectly moderate policies without fear or passion destabilized them. It was a danger to their system because of its widespread appeal....But things are also changing. In recent weeks, we have built strength among the trade unions, for instance among the electricity workers. They were betrayed by Syriza, who broke up and privatized the public energy company.... the cleaning workers in the public sector... bore the brunt of the troika’s assault against the poor...Social movements... need a political organization that allows them a voice beyond their specific localities... one that doesn’t dominate them. If they don’t have this, then they will be crushed by a new right-wing regime of a resurgent oligarchic right – one founded on.. the state of debt bondage until 2060 agreed with the creditors by Syriza... Consider this, for instance: Syriza sold the railways for €43 million... they’d have got more money tearing up the rails and selling them as scrap metal. Or take gambling — Syriza enabled the deployment of thirty-five thousand poker machines by a private company, exploiting a bankrupt people with the fake promise of easy winnings. Even the Right’s privatizations were less deplorable than Syriza’s."

"Millions of Europeans looked with hope to this country, and it was Alexis Tsipras’s Syriza government (elected that January) [2015] that had the responsibility for keeping that window open, and for opening it up further for others. What these millions wanted a break from was not even true neoliberalism, but what I would call bankruptocracy — a new regime in which the greatest power was wielded by the most bankrupt bankers. Tsipras’s surrender in July 2015 closed that window of opportunity... Ever since he surrendered to the troika, Tsipras... dilemma put to progressives: “Who do you want to torture you — an enthusiastic torturer, or someone like me who doesn’t want to torture you but will do it to keep his job?”"

"These lazy answers always flourish during periods of deflation. Deflation, ladies and gentlemen, was always going to be the result of this particular design of the euro and deflation begets monsters: it was Mussolini, it was Hitler; now it is [a new fascist international]."

"Unfortunately the euro's design has created a vicious cycle between failed institutions that create failed policies that lead to discontent and then the only way the powers-that-be in Brussels can clamp down and continue to impose their authority is through increasing degrees of authoritarianism."

"Politics, I now understand, is at its best when it enlightens us via an opponent's insight."

"The referendum of 5th July will stay in history as a unique moment when a small European nation rose up against debt-bondage..."

"On Modern capitalism & Amazon"

"Without the dollar's and America's global dominance, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or German capitalists would not have been able continually to extract colossal surplus value from their workers and then stash it away in America’s rentier economy."