For the whole earth is the tomb of famous men; not only are they commemorated by columns and inscriptions in their own country, but in foreign lands there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them, graven not on stone but in the hearts of men.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that truly great individuals are remembered not just by monuments but also through the impact they've had on people's hearts and minds.
Pericles emphasizes that the legacy of notable figures extends beyond physical monuments and inscriptions in their native lands. Instead, their true memorial exists in the collective memory and affection of people across the world, signifying that enduring influence comes from how they touched lives rather than just how they were commemorated in stone.
In practice
This quote can be used during a eulogy to celebrate a person's life.
For heroes have the whole earth for their tomb; and in lands far from their own, where the column with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined in every breast a record unwritten with no tablet to preserve it, except that of the heart.
Just because you are not interested in politics, does not mean that politics is not interested in you.
Famous men have the whole earth as their memorial.
Not to be able to bear poverty is a shameful thing, but not to know how to chase it away by work is a more shameful thing yet.
Those who are politically apathetic can only survive if they are supported by people who are capable of taking action.
For a man's counsel cannot have equal weight or worth, when he alone has no children to risk in the general danger.
In republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former, because they are everything; in the latter, because they are nothing.
I don't think the people of the slave states will ever consider the subject of slavery in its true light till some other argument is resorted to other than moral persuasion.
I took out my watch and listened to it clicking away, not knowing it couldn't even lie
In my hometown of New Orleans, grief is a public spectacle that, somewhat paradoxically, necessitates celebration. The dead are not mourned so much as they are posthumously venerated with music and dance.
Man lives in only one small room of the enormous house of his consciousness.
No one can get inner peace by pouncing on it, by vigorously willing to have it ... Peace is a consciousness of springs too deep for earthly droughts to dry up. Peace is the gift not of volitional struggle but of spiritual hospitality.
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