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• For my part, I had rather be the first man among these fellows than the second man in Rome.
  -- Plutarch (46-120 AD) -- Life of Caesa...
• I am a friend of the working man, and I would rather be his friend than be one.
  -- Clarence Darrow...
• I would rather see starlight than streetlights.
• He preferred an honest man that wooed his daughter, before a rich man.
  I would rather," said Themistocles, "have a man that wants money than money that wants a man....
• I would rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
• Sir, I would rather have my problem than yours.
• I would rather make my name than inherit it. THACKERAY
• I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
  I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet....
• Themistocles being asked whether he would rather be Achilles or Homer, said, "Which would you rather be,--a conqueror in the Olympic games, or the crier that proclaims who are conquerors?
  -- Plutarch (46-120 AD) -- Themistocle...