Best Greek Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 16

Source: Two Phases of Criticism, Historical and Aesthetic: Lectures Delivered on the Larwill Foundation of Kenyon College, May Seventh and Eighth, 1913

“I have known uncertainty: a state unknown to the Greeks.”

States Known Uncertainty Greek

Author:Jorge Luis Borges

“Philosophy is at its most engaged when it is impure. What is being recovered from the Ancient Greek model is not some lost idea of philosophy's pure essence, but the idea that philosophy is mixed up with everything else.”

Ideas Philosophy Lost Pure Models Essence Ancient Greek Engaged Ancient Greek

Author:Julian Baggini

“And one more thing. About my name — Artemis — you were right. In London, it is generally a female name, after the Greek goddess of archery. But every now and then a male comes along with such a talent for hunting that he earns the right to use the name. I am that male. Artemis the hunter. I hunted you.”

Use Names Talent Female Males London Greek Hunting Goddess Now And Then Hunters Artemis Hunted Fowl Archery Artemis Fowl

Author:Eoin Colfer

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

“It was a subtle refinement of God to learn Greek when he wished to write a book – and that he did not learn it better.”

Writing Book Greek Subtle Refinement

Author:Friedrich Nietzsche

“The ordinary-sized stuff which is our lives, the things people write poetry about—clouds—daffodils—waterfalls—what happens in a cup of coffee when the cream goes in—these things are full of mystery, as mysterious to us as the heavens were to the Greeks.”

People Writing Happens Heaven Stuff Our Lives Mystery Ordinary Clouds Coffee Mysterious Cups Greek Cream Coffee Cup Waterfalls Daffodil Arcadia

Book:Arcadia

Source: Arcadia

“Human reason is beautiful and invincible. No bars, no barbed wire, no pulping of books, No sentence of banishment can prevail against it. It puts what should be above things as they are. It does not know Jew from Greek nor slave from master.”

Knows Should Humans Doe Book Reason Beautiful Masters Slave Jew Sentences Bars Greek Wire Invincible Human Reason Barbed Wire Banishment

Author:Czeslaw Milosz

“But the tale or narrative set in the past may have its particular time-free value; and the candid reader will not misunderstand me, will not suppose that I intend any preposterous comparison, when I observe that Homer was farther removed in time from Troy than I am from the Napoleonic wars; yet he spoke to the Greeks for 2,000 years and more.”

Years May War Past Values Particular Reader Tales Narrative Greek Comparison Spokes Candid Napoleonic

Author:Patrick O'Brian

“If you teach the Negro that he has accomplished as much good as any other race he will aspire to equality and justice without regard to race. Such an effort would upset the program of the oppressor in Africa and America. Play up before the Negro, then, his crimes and shortcomings. Let him learn to admire the Hebrew, the Greek, the Latin and the Teuton. Lead the Negro to detest the man of African blood--to hate himself.”

Source: The Mis-Education of the Negro

“In a way, it's nice to know that there are Greek gods out there, because you have somebody to blame when things go wrong. For instance, when you're walking away from a bus that's just been attacked by monster hags and blown up by lightning, and it's raining on top of everything else, most people might think that's just really bad luck; when you're a half-blood, you understand that some devine force is really trying to mess up your day.”

Source: The lightning thief

“To write or even speak English is not a science but an art. There are no reliable words. Whoever writes English is involved in a struggle that never lets up even for a sentence. He is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the lure of the decorative adjective, against the encroachment of Latin and Greek, and, above all, against the worn-out phrases and dead metaphors with which the language is cluttered up.”

Writing Art Speak Language Struggle Involved Metaphor Sentences Greek Phrases Latin Worn Obscurity Lure Adjectives Worn Out Speak English Encroachment Vagueness Latin And Greek

Author:George Orwell

“The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence.”

Life Inspirational Use Lines Excellence Ancient Definitions Greek Ancient Greek Definition Of Happiness

Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963

“I said it in Hebrew—I said it in Dutch— I said it in German and Greek; But I wholly forgot (and it vexes me much) That English is what you speak!”

Said Speak Greek Hebrew Dutch Vex

Book:Alice in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

“Something has got to hold it together. I'm saying my prayers to Elmer, the Greek god of glue.”

Life God Together Prayer Mythology Greek Glue Still Life With Woodpecker Greek God

Book:Still Life with Woodpecker

Source: Still Life with Woodpecker

“The word aerobics comes from two Greek words: aero, meaning “ability to,” and bics, meaning “withstand tremendous boredom.”

Two Ability Blessing Greek Boredom Sarcasm Sarcastic Fitness Health And Fitness Health Fitness Fitness Workout Aerobics Wellness And Fitness

Book:Dave Barry's Stay Fit and Healthy Until You're Dead

Source: Dave Barry's Stay Fit and Healthy Until You're Dead

“Astraeus,' Aven called out. 'God of the four winds and friend to sailors. Say a little prayer when you look at him, so he will give us what we need to keep our course.' A little prayer?' said Jack. 'To a constellation?' To what it represents,' said Aven. But I don't believe in what it represents,' said Jack. Prayers aren't for the deity,' said Aven. 'They're for you, to recommit yourself to what you believe.' Can't you do that without praying to a dead Greek god?' Sure,' said Aven. 'But how often would anyone do that, if not in prayer?”

Ifs Needs Giving Believe Looks Littles Said Courses Prayer Four Wind Praying Don't Believe Greek Deities Sailor Constellations Greek God

Book:Dawn of the Dragons: Here, There Be Dragons; The Search for the Red Dragon

Source: Dawn of the Dragons: Here, There Be Dragons; The Search for the Red Dragon

“The tragedy of preparedness has scarcely been handled, save by the Greeks. Life is indeed dangerous, but not in the way morality would have us believe. It is indeed unmanageable, but the essence of it is not a battle. It is unmanageable because it is a romance, and its essence is romantic beauty.”

Way Believe Romance Life Is Dangerous Morality Battle Essence Tragedy Greek Preparedness Howards End

Book:Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)

“Experts in ancient Greek culture say that people back then didn't see their thoughts as belonging to them. When ancient Greeks had a thought, it occurred to them as a god or goddess giving an order. Apollo was telling them to be brave. Athena was telling them to fall in love. Now people hear a commercial for sour cream potato chips and rush out to buy, but now they call this free will. At least the ancient Greeks were being honest.”

“While Leonidas was preparing to make his stand, a Persian envoy arrived. The envoy explained to Leonidas the futility of trying to resist the advance of the Great King's army and demanded that the Greeks lay down their arms and submit to the might of Persia. Leonidas laconically told Xerxes, "Come and get them.”

Trying Might Arms Kings Army Lays Greek Submit Preparing Futility Persian Persia

Author:Plutarch

“I merely say that all reading for pleasure is escape, whether it be Greek, mathematics, astronomy, Benedetto Croce, or The Diary of the Forgotten Man. To say otherwise is to be an intellectual snob, and a juvenile at the art of living.”

Men Art Reading Pleasure Intellectual Mathematics Forgotten Astronomy Greek Diaries Snob Art Of Living Juvenile Reading For Pleasure

Book:The Simple Art of Murder

Source: The Simple Art of Murder

“My own feeling about JJ, without knowing anything about him, was that he might have been a gay person, because he had long hair and spoke American. A lot of Americans are gay people, aren’t they? I know they didn’t invent gayness, because they say that was the Greeks. But they helped bring it back into fashion. Being gay was a bit like the Olympics: it disappeared in ancient times, and then they brought it back in the twentieth century. Anyway, I didn’t know anything about gays, so I just presumed they were all unhappy and wanted to kill themselves.”

“Today’s milestone is human madness. Politics is a part of it, particularly in its lethal outbursts. Politics is not, as it was for Hannah Arendt, the field where human freedom is unfurled. The modern world, the world of world war, the Third World, the underground world of death that acts upon us, do not have the civilized splendor of the Greek city state. The modern political domain is massively, in totalitarian fashion, social, leveling, exhausting. Hence madness is a space of antisocial, apolitical, and paradoxically free individuation”

Greek Quotes

Related topics

Greek Quotes