Quotes by Greek Authors - Page 10

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.
Plato
All began to change in the reverse direction and grow more tender. The white hair of the elderly began to grow black; the cheeks of the bearded to grow smooth, and one and all to return to the season of bloom that they had left behind them. Young men’s bodies grew smoother and smaller day by day and night by night till they reverted alike in mind and body to the likes of a newborn infant, and then dwindled right away and were clean lost to sight.
Plato
Beauty! Terrible Beauty! A deathless Goddess-- so she strikes our eyes!
Homer
So long as he was personally present, [Alcibiades] had the perfect mastery of his political adversaries; calumny only succeeded in his absence.
Plutarch
Calligraphy is a geometry of the soul which manifests itself physically.
Plato
You're my Star, a stargazer too,and I wish that I were Heaven,with a billion eyes to look at you!
Plato
Reading should serve the goal of attaining peace; if it doesn’t make you peaceful, what good is it?
Epictetus
For a friend with an understanding heart is worth no less than a brother
Homer
Words are the physicians of a mind diseased.
Aeschylus
Never wade through the pretty ripples of perpetually flowing rivers, until you have looked at their lovely waters,and prayed to them,and washed your hands in the pale enchanting water.
Hesiod
May God ... let me strive for attainable things.
Pindar
Nothing shall part us in our love till Thanatos (Death) at his appointed hour removed us from the light of day.
Apollonius of Rhodes
He asked, 'Croesus, who told you to attack my land and meet me as an enemy instead of a friend?'The King replied, 'It was caused by your good fate and my bad fate. It was the fault of the Greek gods, who with their arrogance, encouraged me to march onto your lands. Nobody is mad enough to choose war whilst there is peace. During times of peace, the sons bury their fathers, but in war it is the fathers who send their sons to the grave.
Herodotus
Put a man on the brink of the abyss and - in the unlikely event that she doesn't fall into it - he will become a mystic or a madman... Which is probably the same thing!
Apostolos Doxiadis
Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.
Homer
How base a thing it is when a man will struggle with necessity! We have to die.
Euripides
We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say.
Zeno of Citium
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
Plato
Running wild in a field of exclamations, chasing question marks
Natasha Tsakos
Persons who have a painful affection in any part of the body, and are in a great measure sensible of the pain, are disordered in intellect.
Hippocrates
But the Lacedaemonians, who make it their first principle of action to serve their country's interest, know not any thing to be just or unjust by any measure but that.
Plutarch
There are men and gods, and beings like Pythagoras.
Pythagoras
It is vain to ask of the gods what man is capable of supplying for himself.
Epicurus
If a cricketer, for instance, suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, which he could do very easily, I mean, are you going to ban cricket bats?
Philip
We are all potential of un-excited creativity
Natasha Tsakos
Take these things to heart, my son, I warn you.All men make mistakes, it is only human.But once the wrong is done, a mancan turn his back on folly, misfortune too,if he tries to make amends, however low he's fallen,and stops his bullnecked ways. Stubbornnessbrands you for stupidity - pride is a crime.
Sophocles
I loathe a friend whose gratitude grows old, a friend who takes his friend's prosperity but will not voyage with him in his grief
Euripides
The one great art is that of making a complete human being of oneself.
G.I. Gurdjieff
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.
Homer
The flesh endures the storms of the present alone the mind those of the past and future as well as the present.
Epicurus
It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly. Do not mistake activity for achievement.Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs, therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity or undue depression in adversity.
Isocrates
The true champion of justice, if he intends to survive even for a short time, must necessarily confine himself to private life and leave politics alone.
Socrates
The kosmos works by harmony of tensions, like lyre and bow. Good and evil are one. On the one hand God sees all as well, fair, and good; on the other hand a human being sees injustice here, justice there. Justice in our minds is strife. We cannot help but see war makes us as we are.
Heraclitus
Every integral man has inside him, in his heart of hearts, a mystic center around which all else revolves. This mystic whirling lends unity to his thoughts and actions; it helps him find or invent the cosmic harmony. For some this center is love, for others kindness or beauty, others the thirst for knowledge or the longing for gold and power. They examine the relative value of all else and subordinate it to this central passion.
Nikos Kazantzakis
TEIRESIAS: Alas, how terrible is wisdom whenit brings no profit to the man that's wise!This I knew well, but had forgotten it,else I would not have come here.
Sophocles
If you wish to be a writer, write.
Epictetus
The heaviest penalty for deciding to engage in politics is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.
Plato
It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen.
Herodotus
By convention sweet and by convention bitter, by convention hot, by convention cold, by convention color; but in reality atoms and void.
Democritus
A shrink and a patient in a love-hate relationship. Who is REALLY the boss?
Mary Papas
Don't put your purpose in one place and expect to see progress made somewhere else.
Epictetus
Prosperity is not just scale adversity is the only balance to weigh friends.
Plutarch
Physical excellence does not of itself produce a good mind and character: on the other hand, excellence of mind and character will make the best of the physique it is given.
Plato
They gave me their names, asking me to forgive them and to pray for them. I would later learn how important it is not to keep a grudge against those who have died. In a mysterious way we 'hold them back' and they suffer if we do not forgive them. We keep them from the higher realm; they seem to remain chained and do not reach Heaven. We must forgive them.
Vassula Ryden
Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man.
Homer
God would seem to indicate to us and not allow us to doubt that these beautiful poems are not human, or the work of man, but divine and the work of God; and that the poets are only the interpreters of the Gods...
Socrates
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.
Euripides
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.
Epictetus
this is the greatest good to man, to discourse daily on virtue, and other things which you have heard me discussing, examining both myself and others,
Plato
A decent boldness ever meets with friends.
Homer
The wildest colts make the best horses.
Plutarch
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
Socrates
All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.
Sophocles
The impassive soul disturbs neither itself nor others.
Epicurus
We’re automatons in a symphony conducted by a lunatic and performed by blind idealists.” Damon
Eleni Papanou
But they could neither of them persuade me, for there is nothing dearer to a man than his own country and his parents, and however splendid a home he may have in a foreign country, if it be far from father or mother, he does not care about it.
Homer
It's like this, I think: the excellence of a good body doesn't make the soul good, but the other way around: the excellence of a good soul makes the body as good as it can be.
Plato
For dealing with blessings which come to us from outside we need a firm foundation based on reason and education; without this foundation, people keep on seeking these blessings and heaping them up but can never satisfy the insatiable appetites of their souls.
Plutarch
A councillor ought not to sleep the whole night through - a man to whom the populace is entrusted and who has many responsibilities.
Homer
The ideal of a well-stocked mind aiming at excellence in all walks of life has been replaced by the dream of a well-stocked wine cellar, the cellar now being a specially made wine cooler strategically placed in one’s house, to be viewed by even the most unobservant visitor.
Dimitris Mita