Greek Americans Quotes & Sayings

Patriot writers attempted to inculcate civic virtue through allusions to classical history, frequently Greek but even more often Roman, and ancient glory. A revolutionary writer in the Virginia Gazette, wishing to "secure this valuable blessing [of classical virtue], and learn the greatness of its worth," wished to recommend to his "countrymen, especially the younger part of it, a thorough acquaintance with these records of illustrious liberty, the histories of Greece and Rome." The writer intended this recommendation not as a theoretical or academic exercise, but rather as a spur to urge Americans to "a glorious emulation of those virtues, which have immortalized their names." Classical examples would surely instill Americans with "a just hatred of tyranny and zeal for freedom," and induce them to follow "the godlike actions of those heroes and patriots, whose lives are delivered down to us by Plutarch. — Eran Shalev

With these meager scraps of Latin and the like, you may perhaps be taken for a scholar, which is honorable and profitable these days. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

This is a struggle of good and evil. And we're the good. — Howard Dean

You will find the Americans much as the Greeks found the Romans: great, big, vulgar, bustling people more vigorous than we are and also more idle, with more unspoiled virtues but also more corrupt. — Harold Macmillan

Perhaps the chief requirement of [the conductor] is that he be humble before the composer; that he never interpose himself between the music and the audience; that all his efforts, however strenuous or glamorous, be made in the service of the composer's meaning - the music itself, which, after all, is the whole reason for the conductor's existence. — Leonard Bernstein

My mom and dad are second-generation Greek-Americans who instilled in our middle-class family the values of hard work, self-reliance, and service, exemplified by my father's tenure as a U.S. Marine who was stationed at Camp David under President Truman. — James Costos

A Greek philosopher said, 'All men think it is only the other man who is mortal'. The way we scurry about accumulating things is testimony to our unspoken doctrine that we are exceptions to the law of death. The events of September 11, 2001, were a shocking reminder to millions of Americans of something we should have already understood - our mortality. — Randy Alcorn

Stupid Jimmy Ferris and his amazing mouth and penis. Who needed him? Not me, I could look after myself. — Kylie Scott

Inspector Tinou sat silent. The Greek police department did not welcome interference from other countries in their affairs. Particularly Americans. They are always too-sou, so sure of themselves. — Sidney Sheldon

He was fine dying here, long as this motherfucker died first." -- The Devil in Snakeskins — Andy Henion

Women are not going to be equal outside the home until men are equal in it. — Gloria Steinem

Life is a journey, but it's not about the places along the way, it's about the people that give you a piece of themselves. — Stavro Nashi

But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel. — William Shakespeare

I'm by no means an opera buff. — Kenneth Branagh

Greek myths are heroic, noble and tragic; but the American Dream is heroic, comical, and uplifting. Americans are a people in whom overweening ambition is rewarded, not punished. The Wright Brothers did not have their wings melt when they flew too high. Perhaps their wings were more soundly built than those of Icarus. — John C. Wright