Laughing at his own son, who got his mother, and, by his mother’s means, his father also, to indulge him, he told him that he had the most power of any one in Greece: “For the Athenians command the rest of Greece, I command the Athenians, your mother commands me, and you command your mother.” Loving to be singular in all things, when he had land to sell, he ordered the crier to give notice that there were good neighbours near it. Of two who made love to his daughter, he preferred the man of worth to the one who was rich, saying he desired a man without riches, rather than riches without a man. Such was the character of his sayings.
–Themistocles (c. 524–459 BC, an Athenian politician and general) on preferring worth of character to worth of pocketbook. Plutarch, Themistocles, Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (c. 75-100 AD) John Dryden translation.
Who do you value more in your life? Those with wealth or those with character? Who do you spend time with? Who do you wish you spent more time with?
