Greek author quotes Quotes

“Law is mind without reason.”

“There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.”

“Along with success comes a reputation for wisdom.”

“That which is impossible and probable is better than that which is possible and improbable.”

“Now the goodness that we have to consider is clearly human goodness, since the good or happiness which we set out to seek was human good and human happiness. But human goodness means in our view excellence of soul, not excellence of body.”

“Poets utter great and wise things which they do not themselves understand.”

“Ancient laws remain in force long after the people have the power to change them.”

“A friend to all is a friend to none.”

“Humility, a sense of reverence before the sons of heaven - of all the prizes that a mortal man might win, these, I say, are wisest; these are best.”

“How many things are there which I do not want.”

“Why do men seek honour? Surely in order to confirm the favorable opinion they have formed of themselves.”

“The honors and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action.”

“Time crumbles things; everything grows old under the power of Time and is forgotten through the lapse of Time.”

“Ideas are the source of all things”

“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.”

“The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor.”

“There is but one world common for those who are awake, but when men are asleep, each turns away into a world of his own.”

“Serious things cannot be understood without laughable things, nor opposites at all without opposites.”

“The wisest of you men is he who has realized, like Socrates, that in respect of wisdom he is really worthless.”

“We circle in the night and we are devoured by fire.”

“Before the birth of Love, many fearful things took place through the empire of necessity; but when this god was born, all things rose to men.”

“What we know is not capable of being otherwise; of things capable of being otherwise we do not know, when they have passed outsideour observation, whether they exist or not. Therefore the object of knowledge is of necessity. Therefore it is eternal; for things that are of necessity in the unqualified sense are all eternal; and things that are eternal are ungenerated and imperishable.”

“It takes a wise man to discover a wise man.”

“The ideal man is his own best friend and takes delight in privacy.”

“Virtue is more clearly shown in the performance of fine ACTIONS than in the non-performance of base ones.”

“In the end, when it's over, all that matters is what you've done.”

“Salt water when it turns into vapour becomes sweet, and the vapour does not form salt water when it condenses again. This I know by experiment. The same thing is true in every case of the kind: wine and all fluids that evaporate and condense back into a liquid state become water. They all are water modified by a certain admixture, the nature of which determines their flavour.”

“Lucky that man whose children make his happiness in life and not his grief, the anguished disappointment of his hopes.”

“If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.”

“Whereas the law is passionless, passion must ever sway the heart of man.”

“Hence both women and children must be educated with an eye to the constitution, if indeed it makes any difference to the virtue of a city-state that its children be virtuous, and its women too. And it must make a difference, since half the free population are women, and from children come those who participate in the constitution.”

“The sun too penetrates into privies, but is not polluted by them.”

“No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.”

“A woman should be good for everything at home, but abroad good for nothing.”

“Nature creates nothing without a purpose.”

“All that one gains by falsehood is, not to be believed when he speaks the truth.”

“I soon realized that poets do not compose their poems with knowledge, but by some inborn talent and by inspiration, like seers and prophets who also say many fine things without any understanding of what they say.”

“This universe, which is the same for all, has not been made by any god or man, but it always has been, is, and will be an ever-living fire, kindling itself by regular measures and going out by regular measures.”

“Health is a matter of choice, not a mystery of chance”

“Why not whip the teacher when the pupil misbehaves?”

“For the man who makes everything that leads to happiness, or near to it, to depend upon himself, and not upon other men, on whose good or evil actions his own doings are compelled to hinge,--such a one, I say, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation; this is the man of manly character and of wisdom.”

“Shipping magnate of the 20th century If women didn't exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning.”

“Follow your dream as long as you live, do not lessen the time of following desire, for wasting time is an abomination of the spirit.”

“There are, then, three states of mind ... two vices--that of excess, and that of defect; and one virtue--the mean; and all these are in a certain sense opposed to one another; for the extremes are not only opposed to the mean, but also to one another; and the mean is opposed to the extremes.”

“What a lot of things I don't need.”

“Song brings of itself a cheerfulness that wakes the heart of joy.”

“[Prudence] is the virtue of that part of the intellect [the calculative] to which it belongs; and . . . our choice of actions will not be right without Prudence any more than without Moral Virtue, since, while Moral Virtue enables us to achieve the end, Prudence makes us adopt the right means to the end.”

“Courage may be taught as a child us taught to speak.”

“Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter light, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light.”

“Love is the cause of unity in all things.”