“It was not until 1948 that Cambridge University stopped requiring a knowledge of classical (ancient) Greek as a prerequisite for admission. This requirement was based not only on the intrinsic merits of ancient Greek literature and philosophy. Knowledge of Greek was a screening device to keep out the less affluent, who attended British state schools, where Greek was less likely to be taught than in private schools.”

“All in all, I was harking back to the Ancient Greeks. When you get old, you always hark back to the Ancient Greeks.”

“The chiseled beauty of his features, like an ancient greek coin.”

“If ‘myth’ is a slippery term, so is ‘classical’. It is common shorthand for ‘ancient Greek and Roman’. But this shorthand has a history, and a bias.”

“The sciences were financially supported, honoured everywhere, universally pursued; they were like tall edifices supported by strong foundations. Then the Christian religion appeared in Byzantium and the centres of learning were eliminated, their vestiges effaced and the edifice of Greek learning was obliterated. Everything the ancient Greeks had brought to light vanished, and the discoveries of the ancients were altered out of recognition.”

“Equilibrium is the state of death, only chaos produces lifeThe Ancient Greeks have been driven to extinction by too much search for architectural harmony.”