The Athenians & the Visigoths speech written by Neil Postman (written as a graduation speech).
Text: http://bit.ly/1lHh5y4
Audio: https://youtu.be/YtjjFmCxc8s
Four quotes (there are many others) emphasis is mine:
among their [Athenian] values none stood higher than that in all things one should strive for excellence. They believed in reason. They believed in beauty. They believed in moderation. And they invented the word and the idea which we know today as ecology.
To contemplate, to reason, to experiment, to question—these are, to an Athenian, the most exalted activities a person can perform.
Athenians place great value on tradition, social restraint, and continuity.
it is much harder to be an Athenian, for you must learn how to be one, you must work at being one, whereas we are all, in a way, natural-born Visigoths.