Quotes by Greek Authors - Page 7

How many things there are which I do not want.
Socrates
Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not remember that what you now have was once among the things only hoped for.
Epicurus
Slight not what is near though aiming at what is far.
Euripides
There is a mortal breed most full of futility. In contempt of what is at hand they strain into the future hunting impossibilities on the wings of ineffectual hopes.
Pindar
The summit of pleasure is the elimination of all that gives pain.
Epicurus
He is a man of sense who does not grieve for what he has not but rejoices in what he has.
Epictetus
It is a hard matter my fellow citizens to argue with the belly since it has no ears.
Plutarch
Excessive fear is always powerless.
Aeschylus
It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen.
Herodotus
A farmer is always going to be rich next year.
Philemon
Farming is a most senseless pursuit a mere laboring in a circle. You sow that you may reap and then you reap that you may sow. Nothing ever comes of it.
Joannes Stobaeus
Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy much the greatest is the possession of friendship.
Epicurus
What God is to the world parents are to their children.
Philo
Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds.
Socrates
Speak to me of love said St Francis to the almond tree and the tree blossomed.
Nicholas Kazantzakis
I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating.
Sophocles
From their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.
Plutarch
To make no mistake is not in the power of man but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.
Plutarch
Excellent things are rare.
Plato
This is courage ... to bear unflinchingly what heaven sends.
Euripides
On the occasion of every accident that befalls you ... inquire what power you have for turning it to use.
Epictetus
Men are not influenced by things but by their thoughts about things.
Epictetus
We are not troubled by things but by the opinion which we have of things.
Epictetus
As a moth gnaws a garment so doth envy consume a man.
St. Chrysostom
It is better to be envied than pitied.
Herodotus
There's nothing like the sight of an old enemy down on his luck.
Euripides
All learning has an emotional base.
Plato
The investigation of the meaning of words is the beginning of education.
Antisthenes
Boys should abstain from all use of wine until their eighteenth year for it is wrong to add fire to fire.
Plato
He is a drunkard who takes more than three glasses though he be not drunk.
Epictetus
The Persians are very fond of wine ... It is also their general practice to deliberate upon affairs of weight when they are drunk and then in the morning when they are sober the decision to which they came the night before is put before them by the master of the house in which it was made and if it is then approved they act on it if not they set it aside. Sometimes however they are sober at their first deliberations but in this case they always reconsider the matter under the influence of wine.
Herodotus
I am a woman who understands the necessity of an impulse whose goal or origin still lie beyond me.
Olga Broumas
No great thing is created suddenly any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom then bear fruit then ripen.
Epictetus
Time brings all things to pass.
Aeschylus
Time in the turning-over of days works change for better or worse.
Pindar
The present will not long endure.
Pindar
Human misery must somewhere have a stop there is no wind that always blows a storm.
Euripides
A wise fellow who is also worthless always charms the rabble.
Euripides
Heaven ne'er helps the man who will not help himself.
Sophocles
How dangerous can false reasoning prove!
Sophocles
Choose always the way that seems the best however rough it may be custom will soon render it easy and agreeable.
Pythagoras
Everything that deceives may be said to enchant.
Plato
Hateful to me as are the gates of hell Is he who hiding one thing in his heart Utters another.
Homer
Call no man happy till he is dead.
Aeschylus
Though this may be play to you Tis death to us.
Aesop
The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.
Epicurus
To die is a debt we must all of us discharge.
Euripides
Death is a delightful hiding-place for weary men.
Herodotus
The time when most of all you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd.
Epicurus
So when the crisis is upon you remember that God like a trainer of wrestlers has matched you with a tough and stalwart antagonist... that you may prove a victor at the Great Games.
Epictetus
The hearts of great men can be changed.
Homer
You cannot step twice into the same river for other waters are continually flowing on.
Heraclitus
Courage is a kind of salvation.
Plato
Men perish by the sword cowards by disease.
Phillippus
The coward despairs.
Euripides
Courage is knowing what not to fear.
Plato
A coward turns away but a brave man's choice is danger.
Euripides
To persevere trusting in what hopes he has is courage. The coward despairs.
Euripides
Awakening begins when a man realizes that he is going nowhere and does not know where to go.
Georges Gurdjieff
It is easy to be brave from a safe distance.
Aesop