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Quotes by Greek Authors
"The man who glories in his luck may be overthrown by destiny."
"A tragedy is a representation of an action that is whole and complete and of a certain magnitude. A whole is what has a beginning and middle and end."
"The heaviest penalty for deciding to engage in politics is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself."
"Not for the first time I find our lives are a shadow, and I am not afraid to say that people who think they have everything figured out and are masters of logic - they are responsible for the greatest folly. No human being is happy. Strike it rich and you are luckier than your neighbor - but happy, never."
"ATHENA: There are two sides to this dispute. I've heard only one half the argument. (...) So you two parties, summon your witnesses, set out your proofs, with sworn evidence to back your stories. Once I've picked the finest men in Athens, I'll return. They'll rule fairly in this case, bound by a sworn oath to act with justice."
"Without friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all other goods."
"The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend."
"It is the task of the enlightened not only to ascend to learning and to see the good but to be willing to descend again to those prisoners and to share their troubles and their honors, whether they are worth having or not. And this they must do, even with the prospect of death."
"In misfortune, which friend remains a friend?"
"He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have."
"We do not learn; and what we call learning is only a process of recollection."
"Necessity who is the mother of our invention."
"Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death."
"We are not to give credit to the many, who say that none ought to be educated but the free; but rather to the philosophers, who say that the well-educated alone are free."
"... when someone sees a soul disturbed and unable to see something, he won't laugh mindlessly, but he'll take into consideration whether it has come from a brighter life and is dimmed through not having yet become accustomed to the dark or whether it has come from greater ignorance into greater light and is dazzled by the increased brillance."
"Practice yourself for heaven's sake in little things and thence proceed to greater."
"Hardly any human being is capable of pursuing two professions or two arts rightly."
"There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands."
"I have pondered on the causes of a life's shipwreck. I think that our lives are worse than the mind's quality would warrant. There are many who know virtue. We know the good, we apprehend it clearly. But we can't bring it to achievement."
"There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends."
"For my part I have no joy in tears after dinnertime. There will always be a new dawn tomorrow. Yet I can have no objection to tears for any mortal who dies and goes to his destiny. And this is the only consolation we wretched mortals can give, to cut our hair and let the tears roll down our faces."
"Hate is a bottomless cup, I will pour and pour."
"I would disapprove of another hospitable man who was excessive in friendship, as of one excessive in hate. In all things balance is better."
"Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved."
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