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Greek Quotes

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Greek Quotes

“Socrates said he was not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.”

World Said Citizens Greek Patriotism Patriotic Greek Philosopher Athenians Banishment

Book:Morals: Ethical Essays. Translated, with Notes and Index. by Arthur Richard Shilleto

Source: Morals: Ethical Essays. Translated, with Notes and Index. by Arthur Richard Shilleto

“Politics is made up of two words: "Poli," which is Greek for "many," and "tics," which are bloodsucking insects.”

Made Two Politics Blood Greek Insects Tics

Author:Gore Vidal

“The Greek word for idiot, literally translated, means one who does not participate in politics. That sums up my conviction on the subject.”

Mean Doe Politics Subjects Conviction Idiot Greek Philanthropy Citizenship

Author:Gladys Pyle

“The ancient Greeks did not have to wrestle with the philosophical problem of the existence of evil. They did not claim their gods were good, just magnificent.”

Problem Religion Evil Existence Claims Philosophical Ancient Greek Magnificent Ancient Greek

Author:Margaret Visser

“Few men have the natural strength to honor a friend's success without envy.”

People Men Success Growth Friendship Natural Strength Wise Words Honor Words Of Wisdom Envy Jealousy Greek Wise Man Once Said Ancient Greek Fake Friends Envy And Success

Author:Aeschylus

“We have no adequate conception of the perfection of the ancient tragic dance. The pleasure which the greeks received from it had for its basis difference; & the more unfit the vehicle, the more lively was the curiosity & intense the delights at seeing the difficulty overcome.”

Source: The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Poetry, Plays, Literary Essays, Lectures, Autobiography and Letters (Classic Illustrated Edition): The Entire Opus of the English poet, literary critic and philosopher, including The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, Christabel, Lyrical Ballads, Conversation Poems and Biographia Literaria

“The dancer's body is simply the luminous manifestation of the soul. The true dance is an expression of serenity; it is controlled by the profound rhythm of inner emotion. Emotion does not reach the moment of frenzy out of a spurt of action; it broods first, it sleeps like the life in the seed, and it unfolds with a gentle slowness. The Greeks understood the continuing beauty of a movement that mounted, that spread, that ended with a promise of rebirth.”

“What's so wonderful about ballet is that it's mind-driven physicality. It's almost a Greek ideal of body, mind, and form.”

Mind Body Form Wonderful Ideals Dance Driven Greek Ballet Physicality Ballet Dance

Author:Edward Villella

“The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it.”

Source: The History of the Peloponnesian War

“For example, I like using strong Greek and Roman Renaissance characters as part of my series.”

Character Strong Example Series Athlete Greek Renaissance

Author:Frank Bruno

“Whereas the Greeks gave to will the boundaries of reason, we have come to put the will's impulse in the very center of reason, which has, as a result, become deadly.”

Reason Results Boundaries Impulse Greek Free Will

Book:The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays

Source: The Myth of Sisyphus: And Other Essays

“The word "freewill" (as also "self-determining power" [autexousiou] used by the Greek Fathers) does not occur in Scripture ... I Cor 7:37 does not mean freedom of the will.”

Mean Doe Self Used Father Scripture Greek Free Will

Author:Francis Turretin

“When the Saracens came to attack him, they threw Greek fire onto the barrier he had made; and the fire caught easily, And you should know that the Turks did not wait for the fire to burn itself out, but rushed upon the Templars among the scorching flames.”

Knows Should Made War Waiting Fire Caught Greek Flames Barriers Scorching Templars

Author:Jean de Joinville

“among the values of classical learning I estimate the Luxury of reading the Greek & Roman authors in all the beauties of their originals ... I think myself more indebted to my father for this, than for all the other luxuries his cares and affections have placed within my reach.”

Thinking Care Values Reading Father Originals Affection Educational Luxury Greek Indebted

Book:The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont

Source: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont

“Greek myths are heroic, noble and tragic; but the American Dream is heroic, comical, and uplifting. Americans are a people in whom overweening ambition is rewarded, not punished. The Wright Brothers did not have their wings melt when they flew too high. Perhaps their wings were more soundly built than those of Icarus.”

People Dream Brother Ambition Built Wings Myth Noble Uplifting Greek Tragic Heroic American Dream Flew Comical Icarus Greek Myth Wright Brothers

Author:John C. Wright

“Your ancestors came to Macedonia and the rest of Hellas [Greece] and did us great harm, though we had done them no prior injury. I have been appointed leader of the Greeks, and wanting to punish the Persians I have come to Asia, which I took from you.”

Has Beens Done Leader Army Harm Greek Injury Ancestor Asia Greece Macedonia

Author:Alexander the Great

“Youths of the Pellaians and of the Macedonians and of the Hellenic Amphictiony and of the Lakedaimonians and of the Corinthians... and of all the Hellenic peoples, join your fellow-soldiers and entrust yourselves to me, so that we can move against the barbarians and liberate ourselves from the Persian bondage, for as Greeks we should not be slaves to barbarians.”

Should Moving Youth Army Fellows Slave Soldier Greek Bondage Barbarians Persian Be A Slave Corinthians Fellow Soldiers

Author:Alexander the Great

“Now you fear punishment and beg for your lives, so I will let you free, if not for any other reason so that you can see the difference between a Greek king and a barbarian tyrant, so do not expect to suffer any harm from me. A king does not kill messengers.”

Ifs Doe Reason Suffering Differences Kings Army Harm Punishment Greek Tyrants Kill Me Messengers Barbarians

Author:Alexander the Great

“For the sake of historical truth I must verify that only the Greeks, of all the adversaries who confronted us, fought with bold courage and highest disregard of death.”

Nations Highest Historical Sake Greek Adversaries Disregard Verify Historical Truth

Author:Adolf Hitler

“The East knew and to the present day knows only that One is Free; the Greek and the Roman world, that some are free; the German World knows that All are free. The first political form therefore which we observe in History, is Despotism, the second Democracy and Aristocracy, the third, Monarchy.”

Knows World Firsts Form Political Freedom Democracy Thirds East Greek Monarchy Aristocracy Despotism Present Day

Book:The Philosophy of History

Source: The Philosophy of History

“Let us see how high we can fly before the sun melts the wax in our wings.”

Knows Science Knowledge Sun Ambition Wings Myth Pursuit Greek Ambitious Pursuit Of Knowledge Icarus Greek Myth

Author:E. O. Wilson

“We have taken a grave and hazardous decision to sustain the Greeks and try to make a Balkan Front.”

World Trying War Decision Taken Fronts Graves Greek War Of The Worlds Balkans

Book:The Grand Alliance

Source: The Grand Alliance

“A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.”

Leadership Possibility Greek Coaching Uncertain Impossibility

Author:Aristotle

“I was not sure I wanted to issue orders to life; I rather liked the Greek notion of allowing Chance to take a formative hand in my affairs.”

Life Hands Wanted Order Chance Issues Inspirational Life Notion Affair Greek Not Sure Allowing

Book:Fifth business

Source: Fifth business

“Man is the measure of all things.”

Men Religion Atheism Awareness All Things Philosophical Greek Humanist Measurement Measuring Ancient Greek Greek Philosopher Relative Truth Western Philosophy Ancient Greek Philosophers Hellenism

Author:Protagoras

“We need a name for the new replicator, a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. 'Mimeme' comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like 'gene'. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme. If it is any consolation, it could alternatively be thought of as being related to 'memory', or to the French word même. It should be pronounced to rhyme with 'cream'.”

Source: The Selfish Gene: 40th Anniversary edition

“We Greeks are lovers of the beautiful, yet simple in our tastes, and we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness.”

Mind Beautiful Loss Simple Lovers Taste Greek Masculinity Manliness

Author:Thucydides

“Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity. The relationship between the soundness of the body and the activities of the mind is subtle and complex. Much is not yet understood. But we do know what the Greeks knew: that intelligence and skill can only function at the peak of their capacity when the body is healthy and strong; that hardy spirits and tough minds usually inhabit sound gods.”

“Can it be, that the Greek grammarians invented their dual number for the particular benefit of twins?”

Numbers Particular Benefits Greek Twins

Book:Redburn, His First Voyage: Being the Sailor-boy Confessions and Reminiscences of the Son-of-a-gentleman, in the Merchant Service

Source: Redburn, His First Voyage: Being the Sailor-boy Confessions and Reminiscences of the Son-of-a-gentleman, in the Merchant Service

“Science only means knowledge; and for [Greek] ancients it did only mean knowledge. Thus the favorite science of the Greeks was Astronomy, because it was as abstract as Algebra. ... We may say that the great Greek ideal was to have no use for useful things. The Slave was he who learned useful things; the Freeman was he who learned useless things. This still remains the ideal of many noble men of science, in the sense they do desire truth as the great Greeks desired it; and their attitude is an external protest against vulgarity of utilitarianism.”

“To test a perfect theory with imperfect instruments did not impress the Greek philosophers as a valid way to gain knowledge.”

Way Science Perfect Knowledge Theory Gains Tests Instruments Philosopher Greek Imperfect Impress Greek Philosopher

Book:The Intelligent Man's Guide to the Physical Sciences

Source: The Intelligent Man's Guide to the Physical Sciences

“The Greeks are wrong to recognize coming into being and perishing; for nothing comes into being nor perishes, but is rather compounded or dissolved from things that are. So they would be right to call coming into being composition and perishing dissolution.”

Life Would Be Science Greek Composition Dissolution Perishing

Author:Anaxagoras

“In the history of physics, there have been three great revolutions in thought that first seemed absurd yet proved to be true. The first proposed that the earth, instead of being stationary, was moving around at a great and variable speed in a universe that is much bigger than it appears to our immediate perception. That proposal, I believe, was first made by Aristarchos two millenia ago ... Remarkably enough, the name Aristarchos in Greek means best beginning.”

“Greek mathematics is the real thing. The Greeks first spoke a language which modern mathematicians can understand... So Greek mathematics is 'permanent', more permanent even than Greek literature.”

Firsts Real Science Literature Language Understanding Modern Mathematics Permanent Greek Spokes Mathematician Real Things

Book:A Mathematician's Apology

Source: A Mathematician's Apology

“The people and the cultures of what is known as Africa are older than the word 'Africa.' According to most records, old and new, Africans are the oldest people on the face of the earth. The people now called Africans not only influenced the Greeks and the Romans, they influenced the early world before there was a place called Europe.”

People World Earth Faces Culture Known Records Europe Greek Old And New

Author:John Henrik Clarke

“There was a time when all dark-skinned people were called Ethiopians, for the Greeks referred to Africa as, 'The Land Of The Burnt-Face People.'”

People Faces Dark Land Greek Dark Skinned

Author:John Henrik Clarke

“She was not a white woman. She was not a Greek... Until the emergence of the doctrine of white superiority, Cleopatra was generally pictured as a distinctly African woman, dark in color.”

Dark White Color Doctrine Greek Superiority Emergence African Women

Author:John Henrik Clarke

“While the business of education in Europe consists in lectures upon the ruins of Palmyra and the antiquities of Herculaneum , or in disputes about Hebrew points, Greek particles, or the accent and quantity of the Roman language, the youth of America will be employed in acquiring those branches of knowledge which increase the conveniences of life.”

“Students of reading, writing and common arithmetick . . . Graecian [Greek], Roman, English and American history . . . should be rendered . . . worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of their fellow citizens.”

Should Writing Able Reading Common Education Liberty Rights Students Citizens Fellows Sacred Worthy Greek American History Deposits Reading Writing

Author:Thomas Jefferson

“Fall Greeks; fail fame; honour or go or stay; My major vow lies here, this I'll obey.”

Lying Fall Failing Fame Majors Greek Honour Vow

Book:The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

Source: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

“One question that has always intrigued me is what happens to demonic beings when immigrants move from their homelands. Irish-Americans remember the fairies. Norwegian-Americans the nisser, Greek-Americans the vrykólakas, but only in relation to events remembered in the Old Country. When I once asked why such demons are not seen in America, my informants giggled confusedly and said, 'They're scared to pass the ocean, it's too far,' pointing out that Christ and the apostles never came to American.”

“In our household, the Bible, the Koran and the Bhagavad Gita sat on the shelf alongside books of Greek and Norse and African mythology”

Book Christianity Mythology Greek Sat Household Shelves Hussein Mind Blowing Gita Christianity And Islam Norse Audacity Of Hope

Book:The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

Source: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

“As Littlewood said to me once [of the ancient Greeks], they are not clever school boys or "scholarship candidates," but "Fellows of another college."”

Said School Boys College Fellows Ancient Clever Greek Candidates Scholarship Ancient Greek

Author:G. H. Hardy

“Baseball is an art! A drama! A ballet without music! Let us give it a Greek chorus!”

Giving Art Drama Baseball Greek Ballet Chorus Without Music Greek Chorus

Book:The Aurora County All-Stars

Source: The Aurora County All-Stars

“There is a misleading, unwritten rule that states if a quote giving advice comes from someone famous, very old, or Greek, then it must be good advice.”

Ifs Giving States Funny Success Advice Fame Be Good Greek Mislead Good Advice Unwritten Giving Advice Unwritten Rules

Author:Robert Foster Bennett

“One meets the cat in nearly all forms of art...curiously enough she is not a conspicuous figure in Roman or Greek art.”

Art Enough Form Figures Cat Greek Greek Art

Author:Carl Van Vechten

“The word "mathematics" is a Greek word and, by origin, it means "something that has been learned or understood," or perhaps "acquired knowledge," or perhaps even, somewhat against grammar, "acquirable knowledge," that is, "learnable knowledge," that is, "knowledge acquirable by learning."”

Mean Has Beens Science Understanding Knowledge Understood Mathematics Greek Grammar

Author:Salomon Bochner

“To the Greeks, the supreme function of music was to "praise the gods and educate the youth". In Egypt... Initiatory music was heard only in Temple rites because it carried the vibratory rhythms of other worlds and of a life beyond the mortal.”

World Inspiration Heard Youth Function Praise Supreme Rhythm Mortals Greek Contemplation Temples Educate Egypt Other Worlds Rite

Author:Plutarch

“The famous Greek physician Hippocrates administered musical treatments to his patients in 400 B.C. Although this type of treatment did not originate with him, it found in him an exponent of the highest order. With the increasing materialism of Western civilization, the major tenants of ancient musical therapy have been either forgotten or discarded.”

“Since the time of the ancient Greeks, we have always felt that there was a close relationship between a strong, vital mind and physical fitness.”

Mind Strong Felt Ancient Greek Wrestling Ancient Greek Close Relationship Physical Fitness

Author:John F. Kennedy