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Quotes by Greek Authors
"Once I was condemned to three months' absolute silence. As I could not speak, I wrote a book."
"The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain."
"The vine bears three kinds of grapes: the first of pleasure, the second of intoxication, the third of disgust."
"He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled."
"Practice yourself, for heaven's sake in little things, and then proceed to greater."
"To amuse oneself in order that one may exert oneself, as Anacharsis puts it, seems right; for amusement is a sort of relaxation, and we need relaxation because we cannot work continuously."
"The best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake."
"Justice... is a kind of compact not to harm or be harmed."
"In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech."
"Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim."
"With regard to sleep and waking, we must consider what they are: whether they are peculiar to soul or to body, or common to both; and if common, to what part of soul or body the appertain: further, from what cause it arises that they are atributes of animals, and whether all animals share in them both, or some partake of the one only, others of the other only, or some partake of neither and some of both."
"We've heard many people say and have often said ourselves that justice is doing one's own work and not meddling with what isn't one's own ... Then, it turns out that this doing one's own work-provided that it comes to be in a certain way-is justice."
"And further, observing that all this indeterminate substance is in motion, and that no true predication can be made of that which changes, they supposed that it is impossible to make any true statement about that which is in all ways and entirely changeable. For it was from this supposition that there blossomed forth the most extreme view of those which we have mentioned, that of the professed followers of Heraclitus, and such as Cratylus held, who ended by thinking that one need not say anything, and only moved his finger; and who criticized Heraclitus for saying that one cannot enter the same river twice, for he himself held that it cannot be done even once."
"The void is 'not-being,' and no part of 'what is' is a 'not-being,'; for what 'is' in the strict sense of the term is an absolute plenum. This plenum, however, is not 'one': on the contrary, it is a 'many' infinite in number and invisible owing to the minuteness of their bulk."
"For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them."
"It is a great thing, indeed, to make a proper use of the poetical forms, as also of compounds and strange words. But the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learnt from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars."
"Nor is he liberal who gives with pain; for he would prefer the wealth to the noble act, and this is not characteristic of a liberal man. But no more will the liberal man take from wrong sources; for such taking is not characteristic of the man who sets no store by wealth."
"Much has been said and continues to be said of what little concern the Turks had for the Acropolis treasures."
"If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature's way."
"Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit."
"It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows."
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