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Ancient Quotes

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Ancient Quotes

“I think the greatest truths, the ones that you find in every culture that has any sort of history of reflection of writing, the greatest truth is that there's nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so. That's the way Shakespeare put it. But you get basically the same idea from Buddha, from the Bhagavad Gita in India, and from the Stoics in ancient Greece and Rome.”

Thinking Writing Culture Truth Is Reflection Ancient Greece

Author:Jonathan Haidt

“I think that we are passionate creatures who really live our fullest life when we are deeply engaged, when we feel successes, and exult in them, when we feel losses and tragedies and are hurt by them. So I came to the conclusion that Eastern ideas of withdrawal may not be right for modern Westerners. If you read the ancient texts, they're pretty severe. I mean, they really are not the sort of thing that you would think compatible with really throwing yourself into life and being a part of it.”

Thinking Mean Hurt Loss Modern Tragedy Ancient Passionate Conclusion Eastern

Author:Jonathan Haidt

“For ages the world has been living by the stupidity of an old Roman adage that says if you want peace, prepare for war. As if anything said in ancient times must be wise, people have used this phrase to justify some of the most unjustifiable arms build-ups, which, far from creating peace, has only become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

People World War Age Wise Ancient Stupidity Justify Prophecy Being Wise Wise People

Author:Oscar Arias

“Obstacles become monsters in your head; evil horrible creatures. Obstacles are sometimes good things. Sometimes they just ARE - not characterized as good or bad, but just as things like ancient mossy rocks that are a part of the human experience.”

Sometimes Evil Good Things Ancient Obstacles Horrible Human Experience

Author:Sameer Gadhia

“The wildwood is everywhere. It's inside us. It's outside us. And, of course, if you happen to be near any of the more ancient forests, not just in Europe; then, you are in touch with the source itself. But for me, it's about journeying into an inner landscape that is deeply embedded within us. We have a wild nature that most of us have forgotten, but it's there. And it's both light and dark. There are ancient atavistic things that need to be approached with care. But even these, if faced up to, can bring blessings.”

Care Dark Blessing Forgotten Ancient Embedded Light And Dark

Author:John Matthews

“What I mean by context is worldview - having the ancient Israelite or first-century Jew in your head as you read. How would an ancient Israelite or first-century Jew read the Bible - what would they be thinking in terms of its meaning? The truth is that if we put one of those people into a small group Bible study and asked them what they thought about a given passage meant, their answer would be quite a bit different in many cases than anything the average Christian would think. They belonged to the world that produced the Bible, which is the context the Bible needs to be understood by.”

People Thinking World Mean Different Christian Term Study Truth Is Ancient Jew Worldview

Author:Michael S. Heiser

“In some ways, Lotus Eaters is a journey disguised as a party film; there's a circus in the movie, and there are parties, but the real story is of an internal journey. There's themes of emptiness and excess and beauty and grief around it, but it's always surrounded by these glamorous events, and those are ways of waylaying her on her journey in the same way that it is in the ancient Greek story.”

Real Film Party Grief Journey Ancient Greek Emptiness Glamorous Ancient Greek

Author:Alexandra McGuinness

“I work in Hebrew. Hebrew is deeply inspired by other languages. Not now, for the last three thousand years, Hebrew has been penetrated and fertilized by ancient Semitic languages - by Aramaic, by Greek, by Latin, by Arabic, by Yiddish, by Latino, by German, by Russian, by English, I could go on and on. It's very much like English. The English language took in many many fertilizations, many many genes, from other languages, from foreign languages - Latin, French, Nordic languages, German, Scandinavian languages. Every language has influences and is an influence.”

Language Influence Inspired Ancient Greek Latin English Language Latino Hebrew Foreign Language Yiddish

Author:Amos Oz

“I took piano lessons when I was a little kid, but even before that, you're singing in the classroom and wherever. Gosh, children are always singing. But I took music lessons, some choir and things like that at school. I learned how to play the guitar when I was about 13... ancient history.”

Children Kids School Singing Ancient Classroom Little Kid Choir Ancient History

Author:Cass McCombs

“I would tell you that for me the sanctity of life proceeds out of the belief that ancient principle that - where God says before you were formed in the womb, I knew you, and so for my first time in public life, I sought to stand with great compassion for the sanctity of life.”

Belief Compassion First Time Ancient Sanctity Of Life

Author:Mike Pence

“Mostly, in The Great Waldo Pepper I remember the lovely Ed Herrmann befriending me and taking care of me. I was crying a lot. I was a real mess when we made that. But this is all such ancient history, Jesus Lord. Was this before or after The Sting?”

Real Care Remember Jesus Lord Cry Ancient Lovely Mess Ancient History Take Care Of Me

Author:Margot Kidder

“I'm always looking for ways to explore the politics of the everyday. For me, the proverbs were a way of bringing in this ancient wisdom that in Arabic culture is often quoted. Those proverbs are such a huge part of the language and parts of people's every day. This is the wisdom that we use in our everyday life but we're not always listening to.”

Culture Language Listening Everyday Ancient Everyday Life

Author:Cherien Dabis

“Rome used to have good public art in ancient times. There is nothing like West of Rome in Italy.”

Author:Emi Fontana

“I travel a lot. Japanese culture is very ancient and very strong. That's why most people who commission work from Japanese architects expect them to create works that have an element of exoticism, the kind typical of Japanese culture. I don't do that.”

People Kind Culture Strong Ancient Architect Very Strong

Author:Shigeru Ban

“Fashion is not just about trends. It's about political history. You can trace it from the ancient Romans to probably until the '80s, and you can see defining moments that were due either to revolutions or changes in politics. At the end of the Roman era, there was this whole move against togas, because that was the signifier of the Roman Empire. In the same way, the '60s were a reaction against the '50s and so on. But now we've been feeding on a sort of cadaver. At the moment, we're just endlessly recycling the past.”

Moments Past Moving Political Fashion Revolution Ancient Roman Empire Recycling

Author:Daphne Guinness

“That culture is a a critical resource the organization ignores. Competely mystifying. The organization continues to act as if culture were dark matter, something essentially inaccessible to us. When in fact there is an ancient discipline called anthropology that's pretty good at thinking about it.”

Thinking Culture Dark Discipline Ancient Anthropology

Author:Grant David McCracken

“The Zen people from Ancient China, "When you're walking, just walk." It turns out to be the hardest thing.”

People Walking Ancient

Author:Jon Kabat-Zinn

“We had an ancient Russian acting coach at my drama school who said the worst offense you could commit was to let your subtext show. That is the point of acting, is to be saying one thing and not be allowed by society or your predicament to show what you're really feeling. In a way, I think that's why the therapy generation has killed script writing, because all you ever get is people going, "Hi, I'm feeling really angry right now."”

People Thinking Writing Feelings School Acting Worst Drama Ancient Coaches Commit Therapy Offense

Author:Olivia Williams

“I write about heroes all the time, and I'm struck by how much of what fills us with wonder in the man-made world was the brainchild of a monster. I mean, slaves built most of the ancient wonders, our city skylines are dominated by the product of sometimes very ruthless capitalist ideals. There's a horrifying thought that I often wonder, which is, are monsters sometimes necessary?”

World Writing Mean Sometimes Wonder Hero Slave Ancient Capitalist

Author:Gail Simone

“Leonardo da Vinci did not take received wisdom - whether from ancient classical thinkers or medieval scholars or from the Bible - without questioning it. And this was the beginning of the scientific method. This is another lesson for our time: that when we have evidence that contradicts a certain belief, we should be willing to change it. I think this made Leonardo, in some ways, a person who better understood the beauty of God's creation than a person who just takes all received wisdom from the Bible on faith.”

Thinking Belief Creation Evidence Ancient Thinker Scholar Questioning Medieval Leonardo

Author:Walter Isaacson

“Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq is clearly a 'client' state of the West, of Turkey and to some extent, Israel. It is shamelessly capitalist, taking land from its own people, cheating them, just in order to pump and refine huge quantities of oil. It treats Syrian refugees like animals, forcing them to make anti-Assad statements. It is turning ancient Erbil into some bizarre shopping mall with nothing public in sight. Its military top brass is mainly US/UK-trained and indoctrinated. And it provokes Baghdad, day and night.”

People Night Animal Military Ancient Cheating Capitalist Quantity Provoking Refugee Bizarre

Author:Andre Vltchek

“I think that age is irrelevant. We're all pretty much spiritual beings - I consider myself to be about eighty-five. I feel like I'm ancient, like two thousand years old.”

Thinking Age Spiritual Ancient Irrelevant

Author:Melody Gardot

“Psychological factors are vital. We don't learn how to improve our emotional intelligence. Even in ancient cultures, such as the Greeks, cultivation of the art of being able to enter a state of awareness that is deeply blissful, and beyond thought and feeling as such. Many people have become disillusioned with religions and, as such, have turned away from pursuing anything spiritual. That create a loss of sense of purpose and a lot of anger. Sure, there are all sorts of problems with organised religions, but there are also all sorts of problems with the world of 'science' too.”

People World Art Feelings Problem Spiritual Purpose Culture Loss Awareness Emotional Ancient Psychological Greek Disillusioned

Author:Patrick Holford

“What's great about symbols, what a writer can do with them is provide a really vivid, interesting image, and the reader will do the rest of the work. That's always been very interesting to me. Like if I just introduce the storks, I don't have to say what they mean because the reader will do that. And if I bring in the dark history of the region, other trends come up, for example how in ancient Egypt they are associated with the souls of the dead. You can surprise yourself by introducing an image and then see how developing the story fills it with meaning that is suddenly new.”

Mean Soul Dark Interesting Surprise Ancient Introducing Very Interesting

Author:Miroslav Penkov

“Ever since John Kennedy, Democrats have had a weakness for dashing younger men like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and, I suppose, Jimmy Carter. They balance their tickets with senior statesmen - Lyndon Johnson, Joe Biden, Walter Mondale. (Al Gore was young but played ancient).”

Men Young Balance Weakness Bills Clinton Democrat Ancient Barack Als Tickets Senior Johnson Gore Jimmy Statesmen Carter Biden Dashing John Kennedy Walter Mondale

Author:Joe Klein

“One of the main reasons I wrote The Sleep Revolution was to examine this ancient, essential, and mysterious phenomenon from all angles and to explore the ways we can use sleep to help regain control over our out-of-kilter lives.”

Reason Helping Sleep Revolution Ancient Mysterious Phenomenon

Author:Arianna Huffington

“The Bible is an ancient text from an ancient context. We live thousands of miles and thousands of years away from that context, which also represents different cultures. Archaeology is a modern means of revealing both the lost record of the ancient world, and the historical and social world of the Bible. While the purpose of archaeology is not to prove the historicity of the people and events recorded in Scripture, it can help immeasurably to confirm the historical reality and accuracy of the Bible and to demonstrate that faith has a factual foundation.”

People World Mean Different Helping Reality Purpose Culture Modern Prove Historical Ancient Scripture Accuracy Factual Different Cultures Archaeology

Author:Randall Price

“We do have to learn poetry at school. Poetry is interesting to me, particularly Chinese poetry. It's like an ancient form of song. There's five sentences, seven sentences - they're very different from English poetry. Chinese poetry is much more rigorous. You can only use this many words, and they will form some kind of rhythm so people can actually sing it. To me, poetry is quite abstract but also quite beautiful.”

People Kind Different School Beautiful Song Interesting Seven Ancient Rhythm Chinese Abstract Poetry Is

Author:Jenova Chen

“One interesting thing I found was that if you take an affluent modern society and collapse it during a crisis, like a war or a natural disaster, people begin relating in a more ancient, organic way. They're functioning in small interdependent groups and putting others first. And another irony is that even in terrible times, cooperating makes people feel good.”

People War Natural Interesting Modern Terrible Crisis Ancient Disaster Feel Good Irony Modern Society Natural Disaster

Author:Sebastian Junger

“Back in the day, you'd walk down to a street corner and see some people making a story with a hat in front of them. It's ancient entertainment, ancient storytelling and oral history - now we're doing it on YouTube.”

People Ancient Storytelling

Author:Rosario Dawson

“People don't understand this: Ideas are important, but they're not essential. What's essential and important is the execution of the idea. Everyone has had the experience of seeing a movie and saying, "Hey! That was my idea!" Well, it doesn't mean anything that you had that idea. There's no such thing as an original concept. What's original is the way you re-use ancient concepts.”

People Mean Important Ancient

Author:John Landis

“I have no agenda. I know what I love to do and that's my religion. That's what I recommend to everybody. I did not invent that very ancient idea: "Do what you love and you will never work in your life." It's the pure truth. I think it's also the goal of human existence to accumulate as much of that feeling as possible. You can find that concept in anywhere from yoga to Bible.”

Thinking Feelings Goal Existence Yoga Ancient Human Existence

Author:Eugene Hutz

“The progress of science, like an ancient desert trail, is strewn with the bleached skeletons of discarded theories, doctrines, and axioms which seemed to possess eternal life.”

Progress Theory Walking Eternal Ancient Desert Trails Eternal Life Skeletons Discarded

Author:Arthur Koestler

“I like the fact that in ancient Chinese art the great painters always included a deliberate flaw in their work: human creation is never perfect.”

Humans Art Facts Perfect Creativity Creation Ancient Painter Chinese Flaws Deliberate Chinese Art

Book:A Circle of Quiet

Source: A Circle of Quiet

“I took the name Green Destiny from - well there is such a sword called Green Destiny. It is green because you keep twisting it, it's an ancient skill, you keep twisting it and knocking it and twisting it until it is very elastic and light.”

Wells Light Names Destiny Skills Green Ancient Knocking

Author:Ang Lee

“Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners.”

Political Politics Freedom Revolution Capitalism Remains Slave Ancient Communism Greek Owners Republic Communist Tyrants Individualism Capitalist Ancient Greek Slave Owners

Author:Vladimir Lenin

“Ocean is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of Time.”

Dream Memories Sea Mountain Ocean Ancient Good Memories Ancient Times Ocean Sea Oceans And Seas Vivid Memories Blue Ocean Endless Time Ocean Currents

Book:H. P. LOVECRAFT äóñ The Complete Fiction in One Volume: The Call of Cthulhu, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow over Innsmouth, The Dunwich Horror and Many More: The Whisperer in Darkness, Beyond the Wall of Sleep, The Rats in the Walls, The Shunned House, The Shadow Out of Time, The Alchemist, The Dreams in the Witch House, The Silver Key, The Templeäó_

Source: H. P. LOVECRAFT äóñ The Complete Fiction in One Volume: The Call of Cthulhu, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow over Innsmouth, The Dunwich Horror and Many More: The Whisperer in Darkness, Beyond the Wall of Sleep, The Rats in the Walls, The Shunned House, The Shadow Out of Time, The Alchemist, The Dreams in the Witch House, The Silver Key, The Templeäó_

“Transcendental meditation is an ancient mental technique that allows any human being to dive within, transcend and experience the source of everything. It's such a blessing for the human being because that eternal field is a field of unbounded intelligence, creativity, happiness, love, energy and peace.”

Humans Energy Human Beings Creativity Meditation Fields Source Blessing Eternal Ancient Technique Transcendental Transcendental Meditation Happiness Love

Author:David Lynch

“The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions.”

Humans War Belief Peace Military Dangerous Danger Possibility Illusion Ancient Anti War Antiwar Peace War No War Just War

Author:Robert Wilson Lynd

“The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow.”

Wells States Law Literature Politics Arms Weapons Foundation Ancient Composites

Author:Niccolo Machiavelli

“Extremists often derive their inspiration from literal interpretations of texts that should rightly be read not as Associated Press reports from the ancient world, but as theological and literary enterprises requiring independent intellectual assessment.”

World Should Inspiration Intellectual Independent Presses Ancient Enterprise Reports Interpretation Literal Extremist Theological Assessment Ancient World

Author:Jon Meacham

“I think the story is the most ancient form of human entertainment.”

Thinking Humans Stories Form Ancient Entertainment

Author:David Mitchell

“I am neither a child, a young man, nor an ancient; nor am I of any caste.”

Men Children Young Ancient Young Man Belonging Castes Caste System Mystery Men

Author:Guru Nanak

“In my office in Jerusalem, there's an ancient seal. It's a signet ring of a Jewish official from the time of the Bible. The seal was found right next to the Western Wall, and it dates back 2,700 years, to the time of King Hezekiah. Now, there's a name of the Jewish official inscribed on the ring in Hebrew. His name was Netanyahu.”

Years Next Found Names Wall Kings Office Western Ancient Rings Officials Seals Jerusalem Hebrew

Author:Benjamin Netanyahu

“If we were living in ancient Rome or Greece, I would be considered sickly and unattractive. The times dictate that thin is better for some strange reason, which I think is foolish.”

Ifs Thinking Reason Would Be Strange Ancient Foolish Rome Greece Advocating Unattractive Ancient Rome

Author:Gwyneth Paltrow

“Some are so very studious of learning what was done by the ancients that they know not how to live with the moderns.”

Knows Done Past Time Learning Ancient Studious

Author:William Penn

“Astrology had an important role in the ancient world. You can't understand many things unless you know something about astrology - the plays of Shakespeare and so on.”

Knows World Important Play Roles Ancient Astrology Ancient World

Author:Steven Pinker

“In ancient times cats were worshiped as gods; they have not forgotten this.”

Inspirational Motivational Humanity Animal Cat Forgotten Ancient Kitten Discworld Ancient Times Funny Cat Purring Cats Cat Lover Pets Cats Owning A Pet Ancient Gods

Author:Terry Pratchett

“Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in a few.”

Littles Wisdom Deals Silence Communication Ancient Social Media Greek Philosopher Withering Effective Communication Silence Is Golden Greek Philosophy Ancient Greek Philosophers Pythagorean Theorem

Author:Pythagoras

“Hope is the pillar that holds up the world. Hope is the dream of a waking man.”

Men World Dream Hope Wake Up Ancient Waking Pillars Naturalist Great Hope

Author:Pliny the Elder