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Ancient Greece Quotes

Browse 84 quotes about Ancient Greece.

Ancient Greece Quotes

“All the plays that have ever been written, from ancient Greece to the present day, have never really been anything but thrillers... Drama's always been realistic and there's always been a detective about... Every play's an investigation brought to a successful conclusion.”

Play Successful Written Drama Ancient Conclusion Realistic Investigation Greece Detectives Thrillers Present Day Ancient Greece

Book:Amedee, The New Tenant, Victims of Duty: Three Plays

Source: Amedee, The New Tenant, Victims of Duty: Three Plays

“Nietzsche inveighs against every sort of historical optimism; but he energetically repudiates the ordinary pessimism, which is the result of degenerate or enfeebled instincts of decadence. He preaches with youthful enthusiasm the triumph of a tragic culture, introduced by an intrepid rising generation, in which the spirit of ancient Greece might be born again. He rejects the pessimism of Schopenhauer, for he already abhors all renunciation; but he seeks a pessimism of healthiness, one derived from strength, from exuberant power, and he believes he has found it in the Greeks.”

“But, ancient Greece and ancient Rome - people did not happen to believe that creativity came from human beings back then, OK? People believed that creativity was this divine attendant spirit that came to human beings from some distant and unknowable source, for distant and unknowable reasons.”

People Believe Humans Reason Happens Spirit Human Beings Creativity Divine Source Ancient Rome Greece Ancient Rome Ancient Greece

Author:Elizabeth Gilbert

“Dialectic, which is the parent of logic, came itself from rhetoric. Rhetoric is in turn the child of the myths and poetry of ancient Greece. That is so historically, and that is so by any application of common sense. The poetry and myths are the response of a prehistoric people to the Universe around them made on the basis of Quality. It is Quality, not dialectic, which is the generator of everything we know.”

“I had always been an enthusiastic reader of stuff about ancient Greece. I would read Herodotus and Thucydides just for fun.”

Fun Stuff Reader Ancient Greece Enthusiastic Ancient Greece Just For Fun

Author:Steven Pressfield

“Ancient traditions have long associated holy wells and springs as very special places of the Goddess or anima mundi: symbolic of the Great Mother and associated with birth, the feminine principle, the universal womb, the prima materia, the waters of fertility and refreshment and the fountain of life. The dreaming sites, as they are called, have also been associated with visions, healing, and other paranormal experiences. In ancient Greece, for example, there were more than three-hundred medical centers placed at water sources, where patients experienced healing.”

“Life for women in ancient Greece was hard - you had to fight for every inch of ground you got. Both Thetis and Briseis are strong, passionate women and in another time and place their lives would have been very different. Part of the tragedy of their characters is how much they have to offer - and how little of that they get to realize. Thetis spends the whole novel fighting the limitations placed on her, desperately trying to eke out the best she can from a bad situation. This makes her fierce and terrifying.”

“When a rapidly rising power rivals an established ruling power, trouble ensues. In 11 of 15 cases in which this has occurred in the past 500 years, the result was war. The great Greek historian Thucydides identified these structural stresses as the primary cause of the war between Athens and Sparta in ancient Greece. In his oft-quoted insight, "It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this inspired in Sparta that made war inevitable."”

“We are living in the era of the busybody. In ancient Greece, if a person wanted guidance, it involved a long, arduous expensive journey to consult the oracle at Delphi. Today, if you want guidance, all you have to do is unplug your ears.”

Ifs Want Persons Long Today Wanted Journey Advice Involved Ears Ancient Eras Guidance Expensive Greece Oracles Ancient Greece Busybodies Delphi

Author:Margo Kaufman

“In English the expression 'ancient Greece' includes the meaning of 'finished,' whereas for us Greece goes on living, for better or for worse; it is in life, has not expired yet.”

Expression Goes On Ancient Finished Greece Ancient Greece Expired

Author:Budd Schulberg

“The ideas of ancient Greece helped inspire America's founding fathers as they reached for democracy. Our revolutionary ideas helped inspire Greeks as they sought their own freedom.”

Ideas America Father Democracy Inspire Ancient Greek Revolutionary Founding Greece Ancient Greece Revolutionary Ideas

Author:Barack Obama

“What is remarkable about the Greeks - even pre-philosophically - is that despite the salience of religious rituals in their lives, when it came to the question of what it is that makes an individual human life worth living they didn't look to the immortals but rather approached the question in mortal terms. Their approaching the question of human mattering in human terms is the singularity that creates the conditions for philosophy in ancient Greece, most especially as these conditions were realized in the city-state of Athens.”

“Look at The Iliad, there's all this stuff about men loving children. The King of Sparta was the most brutal warrior of ancient Greece, and the only thing he liked to do was horse around with kids when he was back from slaughtering. One thing that feminism revealed is that being a distant patriarchal figure was not something men wanted to be. They want to be more involved in the lives of their children, and you can see that once they're allowed to have that connection, they crave it.”

Men Want Looks Children Kids Wanted Stuff One Thing Feminism Figures Kings Involved Connections Horse Ancient Warrior Brutal Crave Greece Iliad Ancient Greece Sparta Loving Children

Author:Stephen Marche

“America did not need to be discovered because quite simply America had the American-Indians. There were whole groups of people that already lived there including very developed societies such as the Incas, the Aztecs, and the Mayans. But then came the European vision that saw the conquest as a source of advanced growth away from medieval Europe. The new revolutionary bourgeois trend formed a new perspective on what was democracy that they saw as an improvement to the democracy of ancient Greece.”

“In looking at these pots at the Field Museum, Alix [MacKenzie] and I both came to a conclusion individually but also collectively that the pots that really interested us were the pots that people had used in their everyday life, and we began to think - I mean, whether it was ancient Greece or Africa or Europe or wherever, the pots that people had used in their homes were the ones that excited us.”

People Thinking Mean Home Used Fields Europe Everyday Ancient Excited Conclusion Museums Pot Everyday Life Greece Ancient Greece

Author:Warren MacKenzie

“What they forget is that, from Ancient Greece on, the people who returned from battle were either dead on their shields or stronger, despite and because of their scars.”

People Forget Battle Stronger Ancient Despite Scar Greece Shields Ancient Greece

Book:The Witch of Portobello

Source: The Witch of Portobello

“See how exciting Anthropology is? He’s a leading expert in ancient Greece. Now you should all change your majors so that you can ogle men like him all day long. Or better yet, uncover naked male statues. (Tory) Was that necessary? (Acheron) Hey, I live to recruit students for the department. If I can make you good for something, then by golly I’m going to do it. (Tory)”

Ifs Men Should Long I Can Students Majors Exciting Males Ancient Naked Hey Experts Department Greece Statues Anthropology Recruit Ancient Greece

Author:Sherrilyn Kenyon

“Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie.”

Law Lying Stranger Passing Passings Obedient Ancient Greece Passing By Thermopylae

Book:Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

Source: Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

“Christianity enhanced the notion of political and social accountability by providing a new model: that of servant leadership. In ancient Greece and Rome no one would have dreamed of considering political leaders anyone's servants. The job of the leader was to lead. But Christ invented the notion that the way to lead is by serving the needs of others, especially those who are the most needy.”

Source: What's So Great About Christianity

“The road to the Olympics, leads to no city, no country. It goes far beyond New York or Moscow, ancient Greece or Nazi Germany. The road to the Olympics leads — in the end — to the best within us.”

Ends Country Cities New York Ancient Germany Olympics Nazi Greece Moscow Lead In Nazi Germany Ancient Greece

Author:Jesse Owens

“Hercules,huh? Percy frowned. "That guy was like the Starbucks of Ancient Greece. Everywhere you turn--there he is.”

Guy Turns Ancient Greece That Guy Starbucks Ancient Greece

Author:Rick Riordan

“I learned that along with the towering achievements of the cultures of ancient Greece and China there stood the culture of Africa, unseen and denied by the imperialist looters of Africa's material wealth.”

Culture Wealth Justice Materials Achievement Diversity Social Justice Ancient China Denied Unseen Greece Ancient Greece Material Wealth

Book:Here I Stand

Source: Here I Stand

“Isn't it a remarkable coincidence almost everyone has the same religion as their parents ? And it always just happens to be the right religion. Religions run in families. If we'd been brought up in ancient Greece we would all be worshiping Zeus and Apollo. If we had been born Vikings we would be worshiping Wotan and Thor. How does this come about ? Through childhood indoctrination.”

Ifs Doe Happens Would Be Running Religion Parent Born Childhood Ancient Remarkable Coincidence Greece Apollo Indoctrination Vikings Zeus Ancient Greece

Author:Richard Dawkins

“In many ways we are all sons and daughters of ancient Greece.”

Way Mother Son Daughter Ancient Greece Son And Daughter Ancient Greece

Author:Nia Vardalos

“The very general occurrence of the homosexual in ancient Greece, and its wide occurrence today in some cultures in which such activity is not taboo suggests that the capacity of an individual to respond erotically to any sort of stimulus, whether it is provided by another person of the same or opposite sex, is basic in the species.”

Persons Today Culture Individual Sex Activity Capacity Opposites Species Ancient Sexuality Wide Homosexuality Homosexual Greece Stimulus Taboo Ancient Greece

Book:Sexual Behavior in the Human Male

Source: Sexual Behavior in the Human Male

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”

“He is the richest who is content with the least.”

Inspirational Wealth Greek Contentment Ancient Greek Greek Philosopher Ancient Greece Inspiring Nature Socratic Reduce Stress

Book:Wit and Wisdom of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle: Being a Treasury of Thousands of Glorious, Inspiring and Imperishable Thoughts, Views and Observations of the Three Great Greek Philosophers, Classified Under about Four Hundred Subjects for Comparative Study

Source: Wit and Wisdom of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle: Being a Treasury of Thousands of Glorious, Inspiring and Imperishable Thoughts, Views and Observations of the Three Great Greek Philosophers, Classified Under about Four Hundred Subjects for Comparative Study

“Greek customs such as wine drinking were regarded as worthy of imitation by other cultures. So the ships that carried Greek wine were carrying Greek civilization, distributing it around the Mediterranean and beyond, one amphora at a time. Wine displaced beer to become the most civilized and sophisticated of drinks—a status it has maintained ever since, thanks to its association with the intellectual achievements of Ancient Greece.”

“No account of the Renaissance can be complete without some notice of the attempt made by certain Italian scholars of the fifteenth century to reconcile Christianity with the religion of ancient Greece.”

Made Certain Christianity Century Accounts Ancient Italian Scholar Greece Renaissance Reconcile Ancient Greece

Book:The Renaissance

Source: The Renaissance

“We don't usually think of what we eat as a matter of ethics. Stealing, lying, hurting people - these acts are obviously relevant to our moral character. In ancient Greece and Rome, ethical choices about food were considered at least as significant as ethical choices about sex.”

Source: The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter

“In ancient Greece, politics and the market were not decoupled.”

Ancient Greece Ancient Greece

Author:George Papandreou

“No civilisation, not even that of ancient Greece, has ever undergone such a continuous and profound process of change as Western Europe has done during the last 900 years. It is impossible to explain this fact in purely economic terms by a materialistic interpretation of history. The principle of change has been a spiritual one and the progress of Western civilisation is intimately related to the dynamic ethos of Western Christianity, which has gradually made Western man conscious of his moral responsibility and his duty to change the world.”

“The spirit of Greece, passing through and ascending above the world, hath so animated universal nature, that the very rocks and woods, the very torrents and wilds burst forth with it.”

World Spirit Rocks Universal Ancient Woods Passing Passings Greece Animated Passing Through Ancient Greece Ascending

Book:The Works of Walter Savage Landor

Source: The Works of Walter Savage Landor

“Our modern world, though infinitely more complex than that of ancient Greece, is also far more superficial. Where the Greeks offered simple psychological training, we live in an age of style and spin in which perceptions of good and evil slither and shift with the political view of the moment.”