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Quotes by Greek Authors

"How many things there are which I do not want."

"The only ways of enquiry that lead to knowledge... the one way assuming that being is and that it is impossible for it not to be, is the trustworthy path, for truth attends it."

"God is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, surfeit and hunger."

"What mortal claims, by searching to the utmost limit, to have found out the nature of God, or of his opposite, or of that which comes between, seeing as he doth this world of man tossed to and fro by waves of contradiction and strange vicissitudes?"

"When a youth was giving himself airs in the Theatre and saying, 'I am wise, for I have conversed with many wise men,' Epictetus replied, 'I too have conversed with many rich men, yet I am not rich!'."


"But God, who is the beginning of all things, is not to be regarded as a composite being, lest perchance there should be found to exist elements prior to the beginning itself, out of which everything is composed, whatever that be which is called composite."

"We should realize that an opinion is not easily formed unless a person says and hears the same things every day and practises them in real life."

"Happy is he who has gained the wealth of divine thoughts, wretched is he whose beliefs about the gods are dark."

"Verily, great grace may go with a little gift; and precious are all things that come from a friend."

"Fear? What has a man to do with fear? Chance rules our lives, and the future is all unknown. Best live as we may, from day to day."

"We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less."

"The nature of God is a circle of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere."

"Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence makes wealth and everything else good for men, both individually and collectively."

"If a man would move the world he must first move himself."


"Then, in the next place, we must know that every being which is endowed with reason, and transgresses its statutes and limitations, is undoubtedly involved in sin by swerving from rectitude and justice."

"In misfortune, which friend remains a friend?"
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