"For we are the only people who deem him that takes no part in public business not as unambitious but as useless."

"We are lovers of the beautiful, yet with economy, and we cultivate the intellect without effeminacy. Wealth we employ rather for use than for show, and we set more store by a confession of poverty tha…"

"We do not copy our neighbors, but are an example to them."

"For you are angry with me, who have no hand in the matter, and with yourselves too, if I may say so, for assenting to my counsels and sharing in my errors."

"The man who avoids public life is not merely idle, but useless."