Ancient Greeks

Famous quotes containing the words ancient and/or greeks:

    Thou art not, Penshurst, built to envious show,
    Of touch or marble; nor canst boast a row
    Of polished pillars, or a roof of gold;
    Thou hast no lantern whereof tales are told,
    Or stair, or courts; but stand’st an ancient pile,
    Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

    In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)