Quotes by Greek Authors - Page 29

Are you not ashamed of caring so much for the making of money and for fame and prestige, when you neither think nor care about wisdom and truth and the improvement of your soul?
Socrates
For this feeling of wonder shows that you are a philosopher, since wonder is the only beginning of philosophy.
Plato
The philosopher whose dealings are with divine order himself acquires the characteristics of order and divinity.
Plato
It is the privilege of the gods to want nothing, and of godlike men to want little.
Diogenes of Sinope
I am a citizen of the world.
Diogenes of Sinope
Remember, it is not enough to be hit or insulted to be harmed, you must believe that you are being harmed. If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation. Which is why it is essential that we not respond impulsively to impressions; take a moment before reacting, and you will find it easier to maintain control.
Epictetus
Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.
Plato
Don't fear the gods,Don't worry about death;What is good is easy to get, andWhat is terrible is easy to endure.
Epicurus
Know you not that a good man does nothing for appearance sake, but for the sake of having done right?
Epictetus
Never say that I have taken it, only that I have given it back.
Epicurus
People ought to fight to keep their law as to defend the citys walls.
Heraclitus
All are one
Heraclitus
Accustom yourself to the belief that death is of no concern to us, since all good and evil lie in sensation and sensation ends with death. Therefore the true belief that death is nothing to us makes a mortal life happy, not by adding to it an infinite time, but by taking away the desire for immortality. For there is no reason why the man who is thoroughly assured that there is nothing to fear in death should find anything to fear in life. So, too, he is foolish who says that he fears death, not because it will be painful when it comes, but because the anticipation of it is painful; for that which is no burden when it is present gives pain to no purpose when it is anticipated. Death, the most dreaded of evils, is therefore of no concern to us; for while we exist death is not present, and when death is present we no longer exist. It is therefore nothing either to the living or to the dead since it is not present to the living, and the dead no longer are.
Epicurus
Wisdom is the oneness of mind that guides and permeates all things.
Heraclitus
It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours.
Diogenes of Sinope
My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher.
Socrates
Whoever cannot seek the unforeseen sees nothing for the known way is an impasse.
Heraclitus
I only know that I know nothing
Socrates
Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.
Socrates
To be evenminded is the greatest virtue.Wisdom is to speakthe truth and actin keeping with its nature.
Heraclitus
He who is not satisfied with a little, is satisfied with nothing .
Epicurus
One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day has been.
Sophocles
Even a soul submerged in sleep is hard at work and helps make something of the world.
Heraclitus
Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents." Translation by Sharon Lebell
Epictetus
Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.
Epictetus
Time is a game played beautifully by children.
Heraclitus
If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, "He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone.
Epictetus
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
Socrates
I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think
Socrates
It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.
Aeschylus
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
Aesop
If a cricketer, for instance, suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, which he could do very easily, I mean, are you going to ban cricket bats?
Philip
You can knock on a deaf man's door forever.
Nikos Kazantzakis
The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.
Socrates
We Greeks believe that a man who takes no part in public affairs is not merely lazy, but good for nothing
Thucydides
When a good man is hurt, all who would be called good must suffer with him.
Euripides
Sameron adion asoI shall sing a sweeter song tomorrow
Theocritus
No man is free who is not master of himself.
Epictetus
The greatest blessing granted to mankind come by way of madness, which is a divine gift.
Socrates
Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.
Aeschylus
A man, though wise, should never be ashamed of learning more, and must unbend his mind.
Sophocles
He asked, 'Croesus, who told you to attack my land and meet me as an enemy instead of a friend?'The King replied, 'It was caused by your good fate and my bad fate. It was the fault of the Greek gods, who with their arrogance, encouraged me to march onto your lands. Nobody is mad enough to choose war whilst there is peace. During times of peace, the sons bury their fathers, but in war it is the fathers who send their sons to the grave.
Herodotus
Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not.
Epicurus
Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.
Socrates
Know thyself.
Socrates
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
Aesop
Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.
Socrates
Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.
Epictetus
Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man.
Homer
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.
Heraclitus
I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else.
Nikos Kazantzakis
The fiercest anger of all, the most incurable,Is that which rages in the place of dearest love.
Euripides
Stronger than lover's love is lover's hate. Incurable, in each, the wounds they make.
Euripides
As long as Man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings, he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.
Pythagoras
…There is the heat of Love, the pulsing rush of Longing, the lover’s whisper, irresistible—magic to make the sanest man go mad.
Homer
One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life:That word is love.
Sophocles
Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.
Plato
Love is a serious mental disease.
Plato
...and when one of them meets the other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy and one will not be out of the other's sight, as I may say, even for a moment...
Plato
You're my Star, a stargazer too,and I wish that I were Heaven,with a billion eyes to look at you!
Plato