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If men insisted on being free from the burden of a life that was self-dependent and also responsible for the common good, they would cease to be free at all. Responsibility was the price every man must pay for freedom. It was to be had on no other terms.

— Edith Hamilton The Echo of Greece (1957)

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More quotes by Edith Hamilton

All things are to be examined and called into question. There are no limits set to thought.

The Greek Way (1930)

None but a poet can write a tragedy. For tragedy is nothing less than pain transmuted into exaltation by the alchemy of poetry.

The Greek Way (1930)

A people’s literature is the great textbook for real knowledge of them. The writings of the day show the quality of the people, as no historical reconstruction can.

The Roman Way (1932)

Mind and spirit together make up that which separates us from the rest of the animal world, that which enables a man to know the truth, and that which enables him to die for the truth.

The Greek Way (1930)

Theories that go counter to the facts of human nature are foredoomed.

The Roman Way (1932)

All Edith Hamilton quotes →

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Edith Hamilton (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.