Our love of what is beautiful does not lead to extravagance; our love of the things of the mind does not make us soft. We regard wealth as something to be properly used, rather than as something to boast about. As for poverty, no one need be ashamed to admit it, the real shame is in not taking practical measures to escape from it.
Funeral Oration, Athens, 430 B.C., in Thucydides 'History of the Peloponnesian War' ii.40, 1 (translation by Rex Warner)