Quotes · Skopia

271 quotes

Democracy passes into despotism. — Socrates · 375 BC No tyrant need fear till men begin to feel confident in each other. — Aristotle · 350 BC You know as well as we do that right, as the word goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. — Thucydides · 404 BC The best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class. — Aristotle · 350 BC The city in which those who are to rule are least eager to hold office must needs be the best governed and freest from strife. — Socrates · 375 BC Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils. — Socrates · 375 BC All 9 quotes →

Politics9 quotes

Man is by nature a political animal. — Aristotle · 350 BC Democracy passes into despotism. — Socrates · 375 BC No tyrant need fear till men begin to feel confident in each other. — Aristotle · 350 BC He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled. — Aristotle · 335 BC Democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike. — Socrates · 375 BC Therefore, the good of man must be the goal of the science of politics. — Aristotle · 322 BC All 9 quotes →

Human nature8 quotes

All men by nature desire to know. — Aristotle · 322 BC Man is by nature a political animal. — Aristotle · 350 BC All men have need of the Gods. — Homer · 700 BC We are quick to flare up, we races of men on the earth. — Homer · 700 BC Neither by nature, then, nor contrary to nature do the virtues arise in us; rather we are adapted by nature to receive them, and are made perfect by habit. — Aristotle · 322 BC Neither anarchy nor tyranny—this I counsel my citizens to support and respect, and not to drive fear wholly out of the city. For who among mortals, if he fears nothing, is righteous? — Aeschylus · 458 BC All 8 quotes →

Education7 quotes

Behold! human beings living in an underground den... Like ourselves... They see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave. — Socrates · 375 BC The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting. — Plutarch The object of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful. — Socrates · 375 BC The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. — Aristotle Learning is an ornament in prosperity, and a refuge in adversity. — Aristotle Education is an ornament for the prosperous, a refuge for the unfortunate. — Democritus · 415 BC All 7 quotes →

Learning7 quotes

We learn an art or craft by doing the things that we shall have to do when we have learnt it. — Aristotle · 322 BC Old to grow, but ever learning. — Solon · 119 The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting. — Plutarch Learning is an ornament in prosperity, and a refuge in adversity. — Aristotle Let us now suppose that in the mind of each man there is an aviary of all sorts of birds-some flocking together apart from the rest, others in small groups, others solitary, flying anywhere and everywhere... We may suppose that the birds are kinds of knowledge, and that when we were children, the receptacle was empty; whenever a man has gotten and detained in the enclosure a kind of knowledge, he may be said to have learned or discovered the thing which is the subject of the knowledge: and this is to know. — Socrates · 369 BC The life so short, the craft so long to learn. — Hippocrates · 410 BC All 7 quotes →

Friends6 quotes

One soul dwelling in two bodies. — Aristotle Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods. — Aristotle · 322 BC We should behave to our friends as we would wish our friends to behave to us. — Aristotle · 240 For few there are among men in whom it is inborn to admire without envy a friend's good fortune. — Aeschylus · 458 BC Friends share all things. — Pythagoras Misfortune shows those who are not really friends. — Aristotle · 350 BC

The afterlife6 quotes

To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. — Socrates · 399 BC Either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another. Now if death be of such a nature, I say that to die is to gain; for eternity is then only a single night. — Socrates · 339 BC But already it is time to depart, for me to die, for you to go on living; which of us takes the better course, is not known to anyone except God. — Socrates · 399 BC The immortals will send you to the Elysian plain at the ends of the earth, where fair-haired Rhadamanthys is. There life is supremely easy for men. No snow is there, nor ever heavy winter storm, nor rain, and Ocean is ever sending gusts of the clear-blowing west wind to bring coolness to men. — Homer · 700 BC Death is, you see, one or the other of two things: either to be dead is to be non-existent, as it were, and a dead person has no awareness of anything at all; or else, as we are told, the soul undergoes some sort of transformation, or exchanging of this present world for another. — Socrates · 399 BC It is perfectly certain that the soul is immortal and imperishable, and our souls will actually exist in another world. — Socrates · 347 BC

Death5 quotes

I should rather labor as another's serf, in the home of a man without fortune, one whose livelihood was meager, than rule over all the departed dead. — Homer · 700 BC To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. — Socrates · 399 BC Either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another. Now if death be of such a nature, I say that to die is to gain; for eternity is then only a single night. — Socrates · 339 BC Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are death is not come, and when death is come, we are not. — Epicurus · 240 Death is, you see, one or the other of two things: either to be dead is to be non-existent, as it were, and a dead person has no awareness of anything at all; or else, as we are told, the soul undergoes some sort of transformation, or exchanging of this present world for another. — Socrates · 399 BC

Democracy5 quotes

Democracy passes into despotism. — Socrates · 375 BC The basis of a democratic state is liberty. — Aristotle · 350 BC Democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike. — Socrates · 375 BC For if liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost. — Aristotle · 350 BC Our constitution is named a democracy, because it is in the hands not of the few but of the many. But our laws secure equal justice for all in their private disputes, and our public opinion welcomes and honors talent in every branch of achievement, not for any sectional reason but on grounds of excellence alone. And as we give free play to all in our public life, so we care the same spirit into our daily relations with one another... Open and friendly in our private intercourse, in our public acts we keep strictly within the control of law. We acknowledge the restraint of authority, and to the laws, more especially to those which offer protection to the oppressed and those unwritten ordinances whose transgression brings admitted shame. — Pericles · 430 BC

God and man5 quotes

All men have need of the Gods. — Homer · 700 BC Zeus does not bring all men's plans to fulfillment. — Homer · 700 BC The Olympian is a difficult foe to oppose. — Homer · 700 BC Zeus, author of all, worker of all! For what is brought to pass for mortal men save by will of Zeus? What herein is not wrought of god? — Aeschylus · 458 BC Not at all similar are the race of the immortal gods and the race of men who walk upon the earth. — Homer · 700 BC

Happiness5 quotes

Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous. — Pericles · 430 BC How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea... All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart. — Nikos Kazantzakis · 1946 The happiest life consists in ignorance. — Sophocles · 442 BC Pleasure is the beginning and the end of living happily. — Epicurus · 240 Be happy, drink, think each day your own as you live it and leave the rest to fortune. — Euripides · 438 BC

Man and animals5 quotes

There are many wonderful things, and nothing is more wonderful than man. — Sophocles · 441 BC Of all wild creatures, the child is the most intractable. — Plato · 346 BC The animal needing something knows how much it needs, the man does not. — Democritus · 370 BC He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must either be a beast or a god. — Aristotle · 350 BC The soul of man is divided into three parts, intelligence, reason, and passion. Intelligence and passion are possessed by other animals, but reason by man alone. — Pythagoras

Marriage5 quotes

A Roman divorced from his wife, being highly blamed by his friends, who demanded, "Was she not chaste? Was she not fair? Was she not fruitful? Holding out his shoe, asked them whether it was not new and well made. "Yet," added he, "none of you can tell where it pinches me." — Plutarch · 119 Never shall I say that marriage brings more joy than pain. — Euripides · 438 BC Marriage, if one will face the truth, is an evil, but a necessary evil. — Menander · 290 BC Therefore don't you be gentle to your wife either. Don't tell her everything you know, but tell her one thing and keep another thing hidden. — Homer · 700 BC May the gods grant you all things which your heart desires, and may they give you a husband and a home and gracious concord, for there is nothing greater and better than this-when a husband and wife keep a household in oneness of mind, a great woe to their enemies and joy to their friends and win high renown. — Homer · 700 BC

The soul5 quotes

The soul is in a way all existing things. — Aristotle · 350 BC The soul of man is immortal and imperishable. — Socrates · 375 BC Death is, you see, one or the other of two things: either to be dead is to be non-existent, as it were, and a dead person has no awareness of anything at all; or else, as we are told, the soul undergoes some sort of transformation, or exchanging of this present world for another. — Socrates · 399 BC It is perfectly certain that the soul is immortal and imperishable, and our souls will actually exist in another world. — Socrates · 347 BC The soul of man is divided into three parts, intelligence, reason, and passion. Intelligence and passion are possessed by other animals, but reason by man alone. — Pythagoras

Time5 quotes

Time crumbles things; everything grows old under the power of time and is forgotten through the lapse of time. — Aristotle · 350 BC But ever-ageing Time teaches all things. — Aeschylus · 424 BC Time eases all things. — Sophocles · 430 BC Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend. — Theophrastus · 240 Wait for the wisest of all counsellors, Time. — Pericles · 100

Tyranny5 quotes

Democracy passes into despotism. — Socrates · 375 BC No tyrant need fear till men begin to feel confident in each other. — Aristotle · 350 BC Where some people are very wealthy and others have nothing, the result will be either extreme democracy or absolute oligarchy, or despotism will come from either of those excesses. — Aristotle · 350 BC The people have always some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness. This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector. — Socrates · 375 BC No, death would be better, for that would be a milder lot than tyranny. — Aeschylus · 458 BC

Wisdom5 quotes

The unexamined life is not worth living. — Socrates · 399 BC Old to grow, but ever learning. — Solon · 119 Mere cleverness is not wisdom. — Euripides · 405 BC Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. — Aeschylus · 458 BC Wisdom outweighs any wealth. — Sophocles · 442 BC

Alcohol4 quotes

The wine urges me on, the bewitching wine, which sets even a wise man to singing and to laughing gently and rouses him up to dance and brings forth words which were better unspoken. — Homer · 700 BC Bronze is a mirror of the face, wine of the mind. — Aeschylus Wine is wont to show the mind of a man. — Theognis of Megara · 485 BC When men drink, then they are rich and successful and win lawsuits and are happy and help their friends. Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever. — Aristophanes · 424 BC

Fate4 quotes

Zeus does not bring all men's plans to fulfillment. — Homer · 700 BC And fate? No one alive has ever escaped it, neither brave man nor coward, I tell you-it’s born with us the day that we are born. — Homer · 700 BC Whom the gods love dies young. — Menander · 290 BC Be happy, drink, think each day your own as you live it and leave the rest to fortune. — Euripides · 438 BC

Freedom4 quotes

The basis of a democratic state is liberty. — Aristotle · 350 BC Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous. — Pericles · 430 BC For if liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost. — Aristotle · 350 BC How strongly does this bear out the truth of Plato's maxim, that he who wishes to be really rich ought to lessen his desires rather than increase his property, because if a man places no bounds to his covetousness, he never will be free from want and misery. — Plutarch

Friendship4 quotes

One soul dwelling in two bodies. — Aristotle Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods. — Aristotle · 322 BC Friends share all things. — Pythagoras Of all the means which wisdom acquires to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is friendship. — Epicurus · 240

God4 quotes

All men have need of the Gods. — Homer · 700 BC For the one thing even God cannot do is change the past. — Agathon This only is denied even to God, The power to make what has been done undone. — Agathon · 350 BC Zeus, author of all, worker of all! For what is brought to pass for mortal men save by will of Zeus? What herein is not wrought of god? — Aeschylus · 458 BC

How to live4 quotes

For our discussion is about no ordinary matter, but on the right way to conduct our lives. — Socrates · 375 BC My child, you are still young, and time as it advances [888b] will cause you to reverse many of the opinions you now hold: so wait till then before pronouncing judgment on matters of most grave importance; and of these the gravest of all—though at present you regard it as naught—is the question of holding a right view about the gods and so living well, or the opposite. — Plato · 346 BC Pleasure is the beginning and the end of living happily. — Epicurus · 240 It is impossible to live pleasurably without living wisely, well, and justly, and impossible to live wisely, well and justly without living pleasurably. — Epicurus · 240

Ignorance4 quotes

I know that I do not know. — Socrates · 399 BC Behold! human beings living in an underground den... Like ourselves... They see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave. — Socrates · 375 BC To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. — Socrates · 399 BC The happiest life consists in ignorance. — Sophocles · 442 BC

Knowledge4 quotes

All men by nature desire to know. — Aristotle · 322 BC In truth we know nothing, for truth lies in the depth. — Democritus · 240 Let us now suppose that in the mind of each man there is an aviary of all sorts of birds-some flocking together apart from the rest, others in small groups, others solitary, flying anywhere and everywhere... We may suppose that the birds are kinds of knowledge, and that when we were children, the receptacle was empty; whenever a man has gotten and detained in the enclosure a kind of knowledge, he may be said to have learned or discovered the thing which is the subject of the knowledge: and this is to know. — Socrates · 369 BC The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. — Archilochus · 600 BC

Nature of man4 quotes

There are many wonderful things, and nothing is more wonderful than man. — Sophocles · 441 BC Man is the measure of all things. — Protagoras · 420 BC Of all the creatures that breathe and move across the earth, there is nothing feebler than man. — Homer · 700 BC Men are good in but one way, but bad in many. — Aristotle · 350 BC

Philosophy4 quotes

Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder. — Socrates · 400 BC The unexamined life is not worth living. — Socrates · 399 BC If you were prepared to let me go on those terms, I should reply to you as follows: "I have the greatest fondness and affection for you, fellow Athenians, but I will obey my god rather than you." — Socrates · 399 BC Well, my art of midwifery is in most respects like theirs; but differs, in that I attend men and not women, and I look after their souls when they are in labor, and not after their bodies: and the triumph of my art is in thoroughly examining whether the thought which the mind of the young man brings forth is a false idol or a noble and true birth. — Socrates · 369 BC

Purpose of life4 quotes

For our discussion is about no ordinary matter, but on the right way to conduct our lives. — Socrates · 375 BC For what should a man live, if not for the pleasures of discourse? — Plato · 370 BC The prudent man aspires not to pleasure, but to the absence of pain. — Aristotle · 322 BC The good of man is the active exercise of his soul's faculties in conformity with excellence or virtue... Moreover this activity must occupy a complete lifetime; for one swallow does not make spring, nor does one fine day; and similarly one day or a brief period of happiness does not make a man supremely blessed and happy. — Aristotle · 322 BC

The human condition4 quotes

One might perhaps say that this very thing is probable, that many things happen to men that are not probable. — Agathon Not to be born is, past all prizing, best. — Sophocles · 406 BC The best of all things for earthly men is not to be born and not to see the beams of the bright sun; but if born, then as quickly as possible to pass the gates of Hades, and to lie deep buried. — Theognis of Megara · 545 BC Of all human ills, greatest is fortune's wayward tyranny. — Sophocles · 430 BC

Truth4 quotes

In truth we know nothing, for truth lies in the depth. — Democritus · 240 How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be When there's no help in truth! — Sophocles · 430 BC Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true. — Demosthenes · 349 BC So poetry is something more philosophical and more worthy of serious attention than history, for while poetry is concerned with universal truth, history treats of particular facts. — Aristotle · 335 BC

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