Laudator Temporis Acti

Plato, Laws 6.771e-772a (tr. Trevor J. Saunders):.

Boys and girls must dance together at an age when plausible occasions can be found for their doing so, in order that they may have a reasonable look at each other; and they should dance naked, provided sufficient modesty and restraint are displayed by all concerned.

τῆς οὖν τοιαύτης σπουδῆς ἕνεκα χρὴ καὶ τὰς παιδιὰς ποιεῖσθαι χορεύοντάς τε καὶ χορευούσας κόρους καὶ κόρας, καὶ ἅμα δὴ θεωροῦντάς τε καὶ θεωρουμένους μετὰ λόγου τε καὶ ἡλικίας τινὸς ἐχούσης εἰκυίας προφάσεις, γυμνοὺς καὶ γυμνὰς μέχριπερ αἰδοῦς σώφρονος ἑκάστων.

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. II, Chapter 12, § 156 (tr. Adrian Del Caro and Christopher Janaway):

Now I suppose I will have to hear again that my philosophy is disconsolate, just because I speak according to the truth, but the people want to hear that God the Lord has done everything right. Go to church and leave the philosophers in peace! At least do not demand that they arrange their doctrines according to your training and background; that is what the scoundrels do, the philosophasters — from them you can order whatever doctrines you like.

Da werde ich wohl wieder vernehmen müssen, meine Philosophie sei trostlos; eben nur weil ich nach der Wahrheit rede, die Leute aber hören wollen, Gott der Herr habe Alles wohlgemacht. Geht in die Kirche und laßt die Philosophen in Ruhe. Wenigstens verlangt nicht, daß sie ihre Lehren eurer Abrichtung gemäß einrichten sollen: das thun die Lumpe, die Philosophaster: bei denen könnt ihr euch Lehren nach Belieben bestellen.

Antonio Canova (1757-1822), "Socrates Saves Alcibiades at the Battle of Potidaea," at Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca: Plato, Symposium 220d-e (Alcibiades speaking; tr. W.R.M. Lamb):

Then, if you care to hear of him in battle—for there also he must have his due—on the day of the fight in which I gained my prize for valour from our commanders, it was he, out of the whole army, who saved my life: I was wounded, and he would not forsake me, but helped me to save both my armour and myself.

εἰ δὲ βούλεσθε ἐν ταῖς μάχαις· τοῦτο γὰρ δὴ δίκαιόν γε αὐτῷ ἀποδοῦναι· ὅτε γὰρ ἡ μάχη ἦν, ἐξ ἧς ἐμοὶ καὶ τἀριστεῖα ἔδοσαν οἱ στρατηγοί, οὐδεὶς ἄλλος ἐμὲ ἔσωσεν ἀνθρώπων ἢ οὗτος, τετρωμένον οὐκ ἐθέλων ἀπολιπεῖν, ἀλλὰ συνδιέσωσε καὶ τὰ ὅπλα καὶ αὐτὸν ἐμέ.

R.G. Bury ad loc.: Hat tip: Eric Thomson.

Cicero, Against Verres II 3.6.15-3.7.16 (tr. L.H.G. Greenwood):

[H]e was the first man who dared to uproot and transform an order of things established everywhere, a usage inherited from their fathers, their constitutional privilege and right as the friends and the allies of Rome.

Now herein, Verres, my first step as prosecutor is to demand why you made any sort of change in a system so long and so regularly maintained. Did your powerful brain detect some fault in it? Were your understanding and your judgement superior to those of all the able and distinguished men who governed the province before you?

hic primus instituta omnium, consuetudinem a maioribus traditam, condicionem amicitiae, ius societatis convellere et commutare ausus est.

qua in re primum illud reprehendo et accuso, cur in re tam vetere, tam usitata quicquam novi feceris. ingenio aliquid assecutus es? tot homines sapientissimos et clarissimos, qui illam provinciam ante te tenuerunt, prudentia consilioque vicisti?

Goethe (1749-1832), "The Four Seasons," couplet 35 (tr. David Luke):

Beauty asked: 'Why must I perish, oh Zeus?'
'Why, I gave beauty', answered the god, 'only to perishable things.'

Warum bin ich vergänglich, o Zeus? so fragte die Schönheit.
    Macht' ich doch, sagte der Gott, nur das Vergängliche schön.

Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695), Les Amours de Psyché, Book II (tr. Eliza Wright):

In play, love, music, books, I joy,
In town and country; and, indeed, there 's nought,
E'en to the luxury of sober thought, —
The sombre, melancholy mood, —
But brings to me the sovereign good.

J'aime le jeu, l'amour, les livres, la musique,
La ville et la campagne, enfin tout ; il n'est rien
Qui ne me soit souverain bien,
Jusqu'au sombre plaisir d'un coeur mélancolique.

Plato, Laws 6.763e-764a (tr. Trevor J. Saunders):

Voting is compulsory for all in every election, and anyone who fails in his duty and is denounced to the authorities should be fined fifty drachmas and get the reputation of being a scoundrel.

χειροτονείτω δὲ πᾶς πάντα· ὁ δὲ μὴ 'θέλων, ἐὰν εἰσαγγελθῇ πρὸς τοὺς ἄρχοντας, ζημιούσθω πεντήκοντα δραχμαῖς πρὸς τῷ κακὸς εἶναι δοκεῖν.

John Jay Chapman (1862-1933), Memories and Milestones (New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1915), pp. 117-118:

When I made this discovery, I determined to learn Greek, or at any rate to read Greek by the light of every facility except literature — a little of it anyway  — a play, half a play, a speech, a couplet — something that was in itself the thing I sought, and not a rendering of it. I had recourse to the garret of memory and there I found a small seedbag of moldy Greek, and with this I began experiments. On reëxamining the first readers and easy grammars which my whole generation had been put through, it seemed to me that they were admirable primers. None need be better. Then why did I not know Greek? The reason was that I had never followed up the beginnings. I had never read a page of Greek out of natural curiosity, nor had I ever seen anyone else do such a thing as to read Greek for pleasure. If anyone will read ten pages of English in the manner in which the schoolboy is taught Greek, he will see why Greek is dropped by the boy as soon as possible. Let anyone analyze ten pages of English, answer grammatical questions upon it, let him be asked to parse and give the parts of irregular verbs, to distinguish between varieties of subjunctive, and he will begin to loathe English literature.