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Quotes by Greek Authors
"The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows."
"We do not so much need the help of our friends as the confidence of their help in need."
"I am dying from the treatment of too many physicians."
"Ah, yes, superstition: it would appear to be cowardice in face of the supernatural."
"For many generations, they obeyed the laws and loved the divine to which they were akin they reckoned that qualities of character were far more important than their present prosperity. So they bore the burden of their wealth and possessions lightly, and did not let their high standard of living intoxicate them or make them lose their self-control. But when the divine element in them became weakened and their human traits became predominant, they ceased to be able to carry their prosperity with moderation."
"For the poet is a light and winged and holy thing, and there is no invention in him until he has been inspired and is out of his senses, and the mind is no longer in him: when he has not attained to this state, he is powerless and is unable to utter his oracles."
"All philosophy in two words - sustain and abstain."
"If a man comes to the door of poetry untouched by the madness of the Muses, believing that technique alone will make him a good poet, he and his sane compositions never reach perfection, but are utterly eclipsed by the performances of the inspired madman."
"I would rather be first in a little Iberian village than second in Rome."
"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom."
"I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment?"
"Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom."
"Men are not influenced by things but by their thoughts about things."
"...and when one of them meets the other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy and one will not be out of the other's sight, as I may say, even for a moment."
"Or else I would have sung a songin response to what the male sex sings.For our lengthy past has much to sayabout men's lives as well as ours."
"And whenever any one informs us that he has found a man who knows all the arts, and all things else that anybody knows, and every single thing with a higher degree of accuracy than any other man "whoever tells us this, I think that we can only imagine him to be a simple creature who is likely to have been deceived by some wizard or actor whom he met, and whom he thought all-knowing, because he himself was unable to analyze the nature of knowledge and ignorance and imitation."
"An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics."
"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."
"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for."
"As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task."
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