“The Greek word euphuia, a finely tempered nature, gives exactly the notion of perfection as culture brings us to perceive it; a harmonious perfection, a perfection in which the characters of beauty and intelligence are both present, which unites "the two noblest of things" - as Swift most happily calls them in his Battle of the Books, "the two noblest of things, sweetness and light."” GivingTwoBookCharacterLightCultureBattlePerfectionNotionPerceiveGreekSweetnessHarmonious Author:Matthew Arnold
“I had the good luck a few years ago to visit the archeological site of Zippori in Israel ... I could see here displayed the Greek culture that Jesus decisively rejected, the same Greek culture that infiltrated the Christian religion soon after his death and has dominated Christianity ever since.” YearsChristianCultureJesusChristianityYears AgoLuckIsraelGreekRejectedSiteGood LuckGreek Culture Author:Freeman Dyson
“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.” BelieveMightSpiritCultureFoundBornResultsGenerationsOrdinaryOptimismHistoricalInstinctAncientEnthusiasmTriumphGreekRisingTragicRejectsPessimismGreeceBorn AgainRenunciationDegeneratesDecadenceAncient Greece Author:Georg Brandes
“Greek culture is pleasant to contemplate because of its great simplicity and naturalness, and because of the absence of gadgets, each of which is sooner or later a cause of servitude.” CultureCausesSimplicityAbsenceGreekPleasantContemplatingSooner Or LaterServitudeGadgetsGreek Culture Book:Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece Source: Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece
“Over the years, I have become convinced that Hellenism as a culture represents not a static condition of uniform sublimity mysteriously achieved and maintained as an effect of some racial advantage. Rather it should be understood as an evolving process, governed by a dynamic of change, as both language and thought underwent transformational alteration caused by a transition from orality to literacy. The instrument of change is discerned to be the invention of the Greek alphabet, at a quite late stage in the history of developing cultures.” ShouldYearsCultureLanguageProcessConditionsEffectsStageLateUnderstoodAdvantageInstrumentsConvincedInventionDevelopingEvolveGreekTransitionUniformsLiteracyStaticAlphabetAlterationsSublimityHellenism Author:Eric A. Havelock
“It has been the White Race who has been the world builder, the maker of cities and commerce and continents. It is the White Man who is the sole builder of civilizations. It was he who build the Egyptian civilization, the great unsurpassed Roman civilization, the Greek civilization of beauty and culture, and who, after having been dealt a serious blow by a new Semitic religion, wallowed through the Dark Ages, finally extricated himself, and then build the great European civilization.” MenWorldHas BeensAgeCultureDarkWhiteRaceCitiesSeriousCivilizationBlowGreekMakersSoleContinentsCommerceWhite ManDark AgesBuilderEgyptianWhite RaceRoman CivilizationGreek CivilizationEgyptian Civilization Author:Ben Klassen
“The Greeks, with their truly healthy culture, have once and for all justified philosophy simply by having engaged in it, and having engaged in it more fully than any other people.” PeoplePhilosophyCultureHealthyPhilosophicalGreekEngagedJustified Book:Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks Source: Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks
“The principal thing is the question of how our culture views age: that old is ugly Just think of Rodin, how he dealt with people of all ages. I have the feeling that I'm alive, I have a body I can make it extremely interesting. That keeps me alive and vital. It's a kind of process of energizing myself by my belief that the classical tradition of art that we've inherited from the Greeks is a load of bullshit.” PeopleThinkingKindArtI CanFeelingsBodyAgeCultureBeliefProcessInterestingViewsAliveTraditionUglyGreekLoadPrincipalBullshitI'm AliveEnergizingRodin Author:John Coplans