top of page

Quotes by Greek Authors

"It is a base thing for a man among the people not to obey those in command. Never in a state can the laws be well administered when fear does not stand firm."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Sophocles
"It is a base thing for a man among the people not to obey those in command. Never in a state can the laws be well administered when fear does not stand firm."
Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
87
"If one begins all deeds well, it is likely that they will end well too."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Sophocles
"If one begins all deeds well, it is likely that they will end well too."
Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
87
"There is nothing which for my part I like better, Cephalus, than conversing with aged men; for I regard them as travellers who have gone a journey which I too may have to go, and of whom I ought to inquire, whether the way is smooth and easy, or rugged and difficult."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Plato
"There is nothing which for my part I like better, Cephalus, than conversing with aged men; for I regard them as travellers who have gone a journey which I too may have to go, and of whom I ought to inquire, whether the way is smooth and easy, or rugged and difficult."
Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
86
"Please all, and you will please none."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Aesop
"Please all, and you will please none."
Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
85
"Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Aristotle
"Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope."
"Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Aristotle
"Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind."
"The smaller the mind the greater the conceit."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Aesop
"The smaller the mind the greater the conceit."
Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
79
"History is Philosophy teaching by examples."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Thucydides
"History is Philosophy teaching by examples."
"When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Plato
"When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them."
Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
77
"Riches are not forbidden, but the pride of them is."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
John Chrysostom
"Riches are not forbidden, but the pride of them is."
"One man cannot practice many arts with success."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Plato
"One man cannot practice many arts with success."
Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
75
"The female is, as it were, a mutilated male, and the catamenia are semen, only not pure; for there is only one thing they have not in them, the principle of soul."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Aristotle
"The female is, as it were, a mutilated male, and the catamenia are semen, only not pure; for there is only one thing they have not in them, the principle of soul."
"All men by nature desire knowledge."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Aristotle
"All men by nature desire knowledge."
"True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Socrates
"True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us."
"If you wish to be a writer, write."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Epictetus
"If you wish to be a writer, write."
"Where there is reverence there is fear, but there is not reverence everywhere that there is fear, because fear presumably has a wider extension than reverence."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Socrates
"Where there is reverence there is fear, but there is not reverence everywhere that there is fear, because fear presumably has a wider extension than reverence."
Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
68
"It is always in season for old men to learn."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Aeschylus
"It is always in season for old men to learn."
Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
68
"If you do not the expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Heraclitus
"If you do not the expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail."
Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
66
"I would rather discover one true cause than gain the kingdom of Persia."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Democritus
"I would rather discover one true cause than gain the kingdom of Persia."
Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
66
"Your silence gives consent."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Plato
"Your silence gives consent."
"What would have become of Hercules do you think if there had been no lion, hydra, stag or boar - and no savage criminals to rid the world of? What would he have done in the absence of such challenges? Obviously he would have just rolled over in bed and gone back to sleep. So by snoring his life away in luxury and comfort he never would have developed into the mighty Hercules. And even if he had, what good would it have done him? What would have been the use of those arms, that physique, and that noble soul, without crises or conditions to stir into him action?"
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Epictetus
"What would have become of Hercules do you think if there had been no lion, hydra, stag or boar - and no savage criminals to rid the world of? What would he have done in the absence of such challenges? Obviously he would have just rolled over in bed and gone back to sleep. So by snoring his life away in luxury and comfort he never would have developed into the mighty Hercules. And even if he had, what good would it have done him? What would have been the use of those arms, that physique, and that noble soul, without crises or conditions to stir into him action?"
"Authority is never without hate."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Euripides
"Authority is never without hate."
Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
65
"The quest for riches darkens the sense of right and wrong."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Antiphanes
"The quest for riches darkens the sense of right and wrong."
"There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Aeschylus
"There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief."
Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
64
"The worst type of man behaves as badly in his waking life as some men do in their dreams."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Plato
"The worst type of man behaves as badly in his waking life as some men do in their dreams."
"The oldest, shortest words - "yes" and "no" - are those which require the most thought."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Pythagoras
"The oldest, shortest words - "yes" and "no" - are those which require the most thought."
"Don't let your special character and values, the secret that you know and no one else does, the truth - don't let that get swallowed up by the great chewing complacency."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Aesop
"Don't let your special character and values, the secret that you know and no one else does, the truth - don't let that get swallowed up by the great chewing complacency."
"The most hateful human misfortune is for a wise man to have no influence."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Herodotus
"The most hateful human misfortune is for a wise man to have no influence."
"Democracy... is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Plato
"Democracy... is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike."
"There is in the worst of fortune the best of chances for a happy change."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Euripides
"There is in the worst of fortune the best of chances for a happy change."
"One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Socrates
"One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him."
"The worst pain a man can suffer: to have insight into much and power over nothing."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Herodotus
"The worst pain a man can suffer: to have insight into much and power over nothing."
Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
60
"Bad men are full of repentance."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Aristotle
"Bad men are full of repentance."
"To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Socrates
"To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge."
"First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Epictetus
"First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do."
"A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Aristotle
"A great city is not to be confounded with a populous one."
"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Heraclitus
"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man."
Man,
Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
57
"Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love of humanity."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Hippocrates
"Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love of humanity."
"The wildest colts make the best horses."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Plutarch
"The wildest colts make the best horses."
"Be true to thine own self."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Socrates
"Be true to thine own self."
"Character is destiny."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Heraclitus
"Character is destiny."
"The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Socrates
"The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear."
"But if cattle and horses or lions had hands, or were able to draw with their hands and do the work that men can do, horses would draw the forms of the gods like horses, and cattle like cattle, and they would make their bodies such as they each had themselves."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Xenophanes
"But if cattle and horses or lions had hands, or were able to draw with their hands and do the work that men can do, horses would draw the forms of the gods like horses, and cattle like cattle, and they would make their bodies such as they each had themselves."
Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
56
"Wisdom comes alone through suffering."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Aeschylus
"Wisdom comes alone through suffering."
Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
56
"At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Aristotle
"At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst."
"Caring about the happiness of others, we find our own."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Plato
"Caring about the happiness of others, we find our own."
"No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Aristotle
"No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness."
"The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Plato
"The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life."
"A horse is a thing of beauty... none will tire of looking at him as long as he displays himself in his splendor."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Xenophon
"A horse is a thing of beauty... none will tire of looking at him as long as he displays himself in his splendor."
Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
55
"But learn that to die is a debt we must all pay."
Quote_Sign_edited_edited.png
Euripides
"But learn that to die is a debt we must all pay."
Share on Facebook_Black.png
Share on X_edited.png
Painting Icon
55
bottom of page