Quotes by Ancient Greek Authors - Page 2

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.
Aristotle
The Ideal age for marriage in men is 35. The Ideal age for marriage in women is 18
Aristotle
These virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions ... The good of man is a working of the soul in the way of excellence in a complete life.
Aristotle
My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.
Aristotle
Nature does nothing uselessly.
Aristotle
We should behave to our friends as we would wish our friends to behave to us.
Aristotle
The female is, as it were, a mutilated male, and the catamenia are semen, only not pure; for there is only one thing they have not in them, the principle of soul.
Aristotle
In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme. &It is also in the interests of a tyrant to keep his people poor, so that they may not be able to afford the cost of protecting themselves by arms and be so occupied with their daily tasks that they have no time for rebellion.
Aristotle
Comedy too can sometimes discern what is right.
Aristophanes
The saddest of all tragedies - the wasted life
Aristotle
Shame is an ornament to the young a disgrace to the old.
Aristotle
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.
Aristotle
Fame means being respected by everybody, or having some quality that is desired by all men, or by most, or by the good, or by the wise.
Aristotle
Hence a young man is not a proper hearer of lectures on political science; for he is inexperienced in the actions that occur in life, but its discussions start from these and are about these; and, further, since he tends to follow his passions, his study will be vain and unprofitable, because the end aimed at is not knowledge but action. And it makes no difference whether he is young in years or youthful in character; the defect does not depend on time, but on his living, and pursuing each successive object, as passion directs. For to such persons, as to the incontinent, knowledge brings no profit; but to those who desire and act in accordance with a rational principle knowledge about such matters will be of great benefit.
Aristotle
It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.
Aristotle
That which is in locomotion must arrive at the half-way stage before it arrives at the goal.
Aristotle
Holding as we do that, while knowledge of any kind is a thing to be honoured and prized, one kind of it may, either by reason of its greater exactness or of a higher dignity and greater wonderfulness in its objects, be more honourable and precious than another, on both accounts we should naturally be led to place in the front rank the study of the soul. The knowledge of the soul admittedly contributes greatly to the advance of truth in general, and, above all, to our understanding of Nature, for the soul is in some sense the principle of animal life. Our aim is to grasp and understand, first its essential nature, and secondly its properties; of these some are thought to be affections proper to the soul itself, while others are considered to attach to the animal owing to the presence of soul. To attain any knowledge about the soul is one of the most difficult things in the world. As the form of question which here presents itself, viz. the question 'What is it?', recurs in other fields, it might be supposed that there was some single method of inquiry applicable to all objects whose essential nature we are endeavouring to ascertain (as there *is* for incidental properties the single method of demonstration); in that case what we should have to seek for would be this unique method. But if there is no such single and general method for solving the question of essence, our task becomes still more difficult; in the case of each different subject we shall have to determine the appropriate process of investigation. If to this there be a clear answer, e.g. that the process is demonstration or division, or some other known method, many difficulties and hesitations still beset us—with what facts shall we begin the inquiry? For the facts which form the starting-points in different subjects must be different, as e.g. in the case of numbers and surfaces. First, no doubt, it is necessary to determine in which of the *summa genera* soul lies, what it *is*; is it 'a this-somewhat', a substance, or is a quale or a quantum, or some other of the remaining kinds of predicates which we have distinguished? Further, does soul belong to the class of potential existents, or is it not rather an actuality? Our answer to this question is of the greatest importance."―from_On the Soul: Book I_
Aristotle
No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.
Aristotle
Give me a place to stand, a lever long enough and a fulcrum. and I can move the Earth
Archimedes
One can with but moderate possessions do what one ought.
Aristotle
...happiness does not consist in amusement. In fact, it would be strange if our end were amusement, and if we were to labor and suffer hardships all our life long merely to amuse ourselves.... The happy life is regarded as a life in conformity with virtue. It is a life which involves effort and is not spent in amusement....
Aristotle
youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.
Aristotle
The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead.
Aristotle
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
Aristotle
Shrines! Shrines! Surely you don't believe in the gods. What's your argument? Where's your proof?
Aristophanes
Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.
Aristotle
Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society.
Aristotle
Magistrate: May I die a thousand deaths ere I obey one who wears a veil!Lysistrata: If that's all that troubles you, here take my veil, wrap it round your head, and hold your tounge. Then take this basket; put on a girdle, card wool, munch beans. The War shall be women's business.
Aristophanes
Thou shouldst not decide until thou hast heard what both have to say.
Aristophanes
The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances."— Aristotle
Aristotle
Happiness is activity of soul.
Aristotle
Tis the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Aristotle
God has many names though He is only one Being.
Aristotle
It is best to rise from life as from a banquet neither thirsty nor drunken.
Aristotle
The pleasures arising from thinking and learning will make us think and learn all the more. 1153a 23
Aristotle
The secret to humor is surprise.
Aristotle
To perceive is to suffer.
Aristotle
Lysistrata: To seize the treasury; no more money, no more war.
Aristophanes
Life in accordance with intellect is best and pleasantest, since this, more than anything else, constitutes humanity.
Aristotle
For it is owing to their wonder that men both now begin and at first began to philosophize.
Aristotle
But of all the things which I have mentioned that which most contributes to the permanence of constitutions is the adaptation of education to the form of government, and yet in our own day this principle is universally neglected. The best laws, though sanctioned by every citizen of the state, will be of no avail unless the young are trained by habit and education in the spirit of the constitution, if the laws are democratical, democratically or oligarchically, if the laws are oligarchical. For there may be a want of self-discipline in states as well as in individuals. Now, to have been educated in the spirit of the constitution is not to perform the actions in which oligarchs or democrats delight, but those by which the existence of an oligarchy or of a democracy is made possible. Whereas among ourselves the sons of the ruling class in an oligarchy live in luxury, but the sons of the poor are hardened by exercise and toil, and hence they are both more inclined and better able to make a revolution. And in democracies of the more extreme type there has arisen a false idea of freedom which is contradictory to the true interests of the state. For two principles are characteristic of democracy, the government of the majority and freedom. Men think that what is just is equal; and that equality is the supremacy of the popular will; and that freedom means the doing what a man likes. In such democracies every one lives as he pleases, or in the words of Euripides, 'according to his fancy.' But this is all wrong; men should not think it slavery to live according to the rule of the constitution; for it is their salvation.
Aristotle
It is this simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences—makes them, as the poets tell us, 'charm the crowd's ears more finely.' Educated men lay down broad general principles; uneducated men argue from common knowledge and draw obvious conclusions.
Aristotle
Happiness is an expression of the soul in considered actions.
Aristotle
Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.
Aristotle
To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character.
Aristotle
The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor; it is the one thing that cannot be learnt from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in the dissimilar.
Aristotle
What can you answer? Now be careful, don’t arouse my spite, Or with my slipper I’ll take you napping,faces slappingLeft and right.
Aristophanes
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
Aristotle
[Y]ou possess all the attributes of a demagogue; a screeching, horrible voice, a perverse, crossgrained nature and the language of the market-place. In you all is united which is needful for governing.
Aristophanes
Happiness depends upon ourselves.
Aristotle
A friend to all is a friend to none.
Aristotle
A true friend is one soul in two bodies.
Aristotle
Chorus of old men: If we give them the least hold over us, 'tis all up! their audacity will know no bounds! We shall see them building ships, and fighting sea-fights like Artemisia; nay if they want to mount and ride as cavalry, we had best cashier the knights, for indeed women excel in riding, and have a fine, firm seat for the gallop. Just think of all those squadrons of Amazons Micon has painted for us engaged in hand-to-hand combat with men.
Aristophanes
You cannot make a crab walk straight.
Aristophanes
I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self.
Aristotle
What is evil neither can nor should be loved; for it is not one’s duty to be a lover of evil or to become like what is bad; and we have said that like is dear to like. Must the friendship, then, be forthwith broken off? Or is this not so in all cases, but only when one’s friends are incurable in their wickedness? If they are capable of being reformed one should rather come to the assistance of their character or their property, inasmuch as this is better and more characteristic of friendship. But a man who breaks off such a friendship would seem to be doing nothing strange; for it was not to a man of this sort that he was a friend; when his friend changed, therefore, and he is unable to save him, he gives him up.
Aristotle
Between friends there is no need of justice.
Aristotle
To amuse oneself in order that one may exert oneself, as Anacharsis puts it, seems right; for amusement is a sort of relaxation, and we need relaxation because we cannot work continuously.
Aristotle
Chorus of women: […] Oh! my good, gallant Lysistrata, and all my friends, be ever like a bundle of nettles; never let you anger slacken; the wind of fortune blown our way.
Aristophanes
What lies in our power to do it lies in our power not to do.
Aristotle