Week 2023-34: Sophocles - Collected Quotes

"A human being is only breath and shadow." (Sophocles)

"A state is not a state if it belongs to one man." (Sophocles)

"All a man's affairs become diseased when he wishes to cure evils by evils." (Sophocles)

"All is disgust when one leaves his own nature and does things that misfit it." (Sophocles)

"Chance never helps those who do not help themselves." (Sophocles)

"Enemies' gifts are no gifts and do no good." (Sophocles)

"Evil gains work their punishment." (Sophocles)

"Fortune cannot aid those who do nothing." (Sophocles)

"Gratitude to gratitude always gives birth." (Sophocles)

"He who throws away a friend is as bad as he who throws away his life." (Sophocles)

"How dangerous can false reasoning prove!" (Sophocles)

"How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be when there's no help in the truth." (Sophocles)

"In a just cause the weak will beat the strong." (Sophocles)

"It is a painful thing to look at your own trouble and know that you yourself, and no one else, has made it." (Sophocles)

"It is best to live however one can be." (Sophocles)

"It is terrible to speak well and be wrong." (Sophocles)

"Is anyone in all the world safe from unhappiness?" (Sophocles)

"Kindness gives birth to kindness." (Sophocles)

"Knowledge must come through action; you can have no test which is not fanciful, save by trial." (Sophocles)

"Man is not constituted to take pleasure in the same things always." (Sophocles)

"Men of ill judgment ignore the good that lies within their hands, till they have lost it." (Sophocles)

"Men should pledge themselves to nothing; for reflection makes a liar of their resolution." (Sophocles)

"Money is the worst currency that ever grew among mankind. This sacks cities, this drives men from their homes, this teaches and corrupts the worthiest minds to turn base deeds." (Sophocles)

"Much wisdom often goes with fewest words." (Sophocles)

"No great thing comes without a curse" Sophocles

"No lie ever reaches old age." (Sophocles)

"No treaty is ever an impediment to a cheat." (Sophocles)

"Not knowing anything is the sweetest life." (Sophocles)

"Not all things are to be discovered; many are better concealed." (Sophocles)

"Old age and the passage of time teach all things." (Sophocles)

"One must learn by doing the thing, for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try." (Sophocles)

"One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession." (Sophocles)

"Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way." (Sophocles)

"Quick decisions are unsafe decisions." (Sophocles)

"Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud." (Sophocles)

"Rather throw away that which is dearest to you, your own life, than turn away a good friend." (Sophocles)

"The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves." (Sophocles)

"The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities." (Sophocles)

"There is a point at which even justice does injury." (Sophocles)

"There is no witness so terrible and no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us." (Sophocles)

"To be doing good deeds is man's most glorious task." (Sophocles)

"To him who is in fear everything rustles." (Sophocles)

"To throw away an honest friend is, as it were, to throw your life away." (Sophocles)

"What fate can be worse than to know we have no one but ourselves to blame for our misfortunes!" (Sophocles)

"Wisdom is the most important part of happiness." (Sophocles)

"When a man has lost all happiness, he's not alive. Call him a breathing corpse." (Sophocles)

"When trouble ends even troubles please." (Sophocles)

"Whoever understands how to do a kindness when he fares well would be a friend better than any possession." (Sophocles)

"Why should a man fear, since chance is all in all for him, and he can clearly fore-know nothing? Best to live lightly as one can, unthinking." (Sophocles)

"Wise thinkers prevail everywhere." (Sophocles)

"You win the victory when you yield to friends." (Sophocles)

Week 2023-33: Marcus Aurelius - Collected Quotes

"Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason." (Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations". cca. 121–180 AD)

"And in the case of superior things like stars, we discover a kind of unity in separation. The higher we rise on the scale of being, the easier it is to discern a connection even among things separated by vast distances." (Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations". cca. 121–180 AD)

 

"Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things are the cooperating causes of all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the contexture of the web." (Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations". cca. 121–180 AD)

 

"Either all things proceed from one intelligent source and come together as in one body, and the part ought not to find fault with what is done for the benefit of the whole; or there are only atoms, and nothing else than a mixture and dispersion. Why, then, art thou disturbed? Say to this ruling faculty, Art thou dead, art thou corrupted, art thou playing the hypocrite, art thou become a beast, dost thou herd and feed with the rest?" (Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations". cca. 121–180 AD)

 

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." (Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations", cca. 121–180 AD)

 

"Look to the essence of a thing, whether it be a point of doctrine, of practice, or of interpretation." (Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations", cca. 121–180 AD)

"In the series of things those which follow are always aptly fitted to those which have gone before; for this series is not like a mere enumeration of disjointed things, which has only a necessary sequence, but it is a rational connection: and as all existing things are arranged together harmoniously, so the things which come into existence exhibit no mere succession, but a certain wonderful relationship." (Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations", cca. 180 AD)

 

"Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life." (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, cca. 121–180)

 

"Observe the movements of the stars as if you were running their courses with them, and let your mind constantly dwell on the changes of the elements into each other." (Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations", cca. 121–180 AD)

 

"Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.“ (Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations", cca. 121–180 AD)

"The other reason is that what happens to the individual is a cause of well-being in what directs the world - of its well-being, its fulfillment, or its very existence, even. Because the whole is damaged if you cut away anything - anything at all - from its continuity and its coherence. Not only its parts, but its purposes. And that's what you're doing when you complain: hacking and destroying." (Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations", cca. 121–180 AD)

 

"The universal intelligence puts itself in motion for every separate effect [...] or it puts itself in motion once, and everything else comes by way of a sequence in a manner; or individual elements are the origin of all things. In a word, if there is a god, all is well; and if chance rules, do not thou be governed by it." (Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations", cca. 121–180 AD)

 

"The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it." (Marcus Aurelius)

"You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength." (Marcus Aurelius)

Week 2023-32: Epictetus - Collected Quotes

"Any person capable of angering you becomes your master." (Epictetus)

"As it is pleasant to see the sea from the land, so it is pleasant for him who has escaped from troubles to think of them." (Epictetus, "Discourses")

"Fight against yourself, recover yourself to decency, to modesty, to freedom. And, in the first place, condemn your actions; but when you have condemned them, do not despair of yourself. For both ruin and recovery are from within." (Epictetus)

"He who exercises wisdom exercises the knowledge which is about God." (Epictetus, "Discourses")

"In every affair consider what precedes and what follows, and then undertake it." (Epictetus)

"In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside." (Epictetus, "Discourses")

"It is better by assenting to truth to conquer opinion, than by assenting to opinion to be conquered by truth." (Epictetus, "Discourses")

"It is my business, to manage carefully and dexterously whatever happens." (Epictetus)

"It is no easy thing for a principle to become a man's own unless each day he maintains it and works it out in his life." (Epictetus)

"Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly." (Epictetus)

"No matter what happens, it is within my power to turn it to my advantage." (Epictetus)

"Not every difficult and dangerous thing is suitable for training, but only that which is conducive to success in achieving the object of our effort." (Epictetus, "Discourses")

"Reason is not measured by size or height, but by principle." (Epictetus)

"The essence of good and evil is a certain disposition of the will." (Epictetus, "Of Courage")

"Things true and evident must of necessity be recognized by those who would contradict them." (Epictetus)

"To be getting an education means this: to be learning what is your own, and what is not your own." (Epictetus, "Discourses")

"When you are offended at any man's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger." (Epictetus)

"You are but an appearance, and not absolutely the thing you appear to be." (Epictetus)

Week 2023-31: Heraclitus of Ephesus - Collected Quotes

"Everything flows and nothing stays. [...] You can't step twice into the same river." (Heraclitus of Ephesus)

"For those who are awake there is one common universe." (Heraclitus of Ephesus, "Fragments" [3.89], cca. 5th century)

"He who does not expect will not find out the unexpected, for it is trackless and unexplored." (Heraclitus of Ephesus)

"It should be known that war is universal, that strife is justice, and all things come into existence by strife and necessity." (Heraclitus of Ephesus)

"Much learning does not teach a man to have intelligence." (Heraclitus of Ephesus)

"Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony." (Heraclitus of Ephesus)

"The fairest order in the world is a heap of random sweepings." (Heraclitus of Ephesus)

"The real constitution of things is accustomed to hide itself." (Heraclitus of Ephesus)

"The road up and the road down is one and the same." (Heraclitus of Ephesus, "On the Universe", cca. 5th century)

"The greatest virtue is to be prudent, and wisdom is to speak the truth and with understanding to act according to nature. (Heraclitus of Ephesus, "Fragments" [75.112], cca. 5th century)

"There is one wisdom, to understand how reason steers everything through everything." (Heraclitus of Ephesus, "Fragments" [4.41], cca. 5th century)

"Time is like a river flowing endlessly through the universe." (Heraclitus of Ephesus)

"Unite whole and part, agreement and disagreement, accordant and discordant; from all comes one, and from one all." (Heraclitus of Ephesus)