Cleopatra

by Stacy Schiff

“Man’s most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe.” —EURIPIDES

who is not thrashed cannot be educated.”

“as reason is the glory of man, so the lamp of reason is eloquence.”

As always, an educated woman was a dangerous woman.

BC. “One loyal friend,” Euripides reminds us, “is worth ten thousand relatives.”

“No wild beast is more savage than man when his passion is supplemented by power.”

As Dio observed later, democracy sounded very well and good, “but its results are seen not to agree at all with its title. Monarchy, on the contrary, has an unpleasant sound, but is a most practical form of government to live under. For it is easier to find a single excellent man than many of them.”

MISFORTUNE, WENT THE saying, has few friends;