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Quotes by Greek Authors
"Alas, how terrible is wisdomwhen it brings no profit to the man that's wise!This I knew well, but had forgotten it,else I would not have come here."
"Tis the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
"Each man is capable of doing one thing well. If he attempts several he will fail to achieve distinction in any."
"A poet, you see, is a light thing, and winged and holy, and cannot compose before he gets inspiration and loses control of his senses and his reason has deserted him."
"He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader."
"There is much that is strange, but nothing that surpasses man in strangeness."
"For to fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise without really being wise, for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For no one knows whether death may not be the greatest good that can happen to man."
"For, let me tell you that the more the pleasures of the body fade away, the greater to me are the pleasure and charm of conversation."
"The generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear rather than reverence, and to refrain from evil rather because of the punishment that it brings than because of its own foulness."
"It is but sorrow to be wise when wisdom profits not."
"For if any man thinks that he is alone is wise--that in speech, or in mind, he hath no peer--such a soul, when laid open, is ever found empty."
"But this is not difficult, O Athenians! to escape death; but it is much more difficult to avoid depravity, for it runs swifter than death. And now I, being slow and aged, am overtaken by the slower of the two; but my accusers, being strong and active, have been overtaken by the swifter, wickedness. And now I depart, condemned by you to death; but they condemned by truth, as guilty of iniquity and injustice: and I abide my sentence, and so do they. These things, perhaps, ought so to be, and I think that they are for the best."
"On the occasion of every accident that befalls you ... inquire what power you have for turning it to use."
"In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds."
"The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal."
"I cannot call somebody 'hard-working' knowing only that they read and write. Even if 'all night long' is added, I cannot say it " not until I know the focus of all this energy."
"Concerning the Gods, there are those who deny the very existence of the Godhead; others say that it exists, but neither bestirs nor concerns itself not has forethought far anything. A third party attribute to it existence and forethought, but only for great and heavenly matters, not for anything that is on earth. A fourth party admit things on earth as well as in heaven, but only in general, and not with respect to each individual. A fifth, of whom were Ulysses and Socrates, are those that cry: --I move not without Thy knowledge!"
"I have gained this by philosophy. I do without being ordered what some are constrained to do by their fear of the law."
"Philosophy does not claim to secure for us anything outside our control. Otherwise it would be taking on matters that do not concern it. For as wood is the material of the carpenter, and marble that of the sculptor, so the subject matter of the art of life is the life of the self."
"It is our attitude toward events, not events themselves, which we can control. Nothing is by its own nature calamitous -- even death is terrible only if we fear it."
"If a person gave your body to any stranger he met on is way, you would certainly be angry. And do you feel no shame in handing over your own mind to be confused and mystified by anyone who happens to verbally attack you?"
"It is best to rise from life as from a banquet, neither thirsty nor drunken."
"Knowledge unqualified is knowledge simply of something learned."
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