400 BC

Showing 23 works across all media from the 400 BC

Philosophical dialogue · Philosophical literature

Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder.

Socrates

Plato, Theaetetus · 400 BC

★ 9.7

Philosophical literature · Religious literature

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 9.2

Nonfiction · Wisdom literature

The Wisdom Books

Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes

Author unknown

400 BC · 416 pages

Job loses everything, demands an explanation, and gets a whirlwind of questions back. Ecclesiastes calls all of it breath. Proverbs, unmoved by either, tells you how to live anyway.

★ 7.6

Nonfiction · Epic poetry

Mahabharata

A Modern Retelling

Vyasa and Carole Satyamurti

400 BC · 928 pages

Five brothers gamble away a kingdom and their wife, then return from exile to a war that swallows their world. Carole Satyamurti's English verse holds the whole Sanskrit epic, Krishna's counsel included.

★ 7.5

Nonfiction · Religious

Hebrew Torah

Author unknown

400 BC · 400 pages

These five books make the world, drown it, and follow one family from Abraham to the law given at Sinai. Four billion people now worship the God who speaks in them.

★ 6.7

Nonfiction · Philosophy

Tao Te Ching

Lao Tzu

400 BC · 144 pages

Water wears down stone, and the way that can be spoken is not the eternal way. Eighty-one verses on yielding, emptiness, and governing least have shaped Chinese thought for twenty-four hundred years.

★ 6.7

Philosophical literature · Religious literature

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 5.8

Philosophical literature · Religious literature

The sage does not accumulate for himself. The more he uses for others, the more he has himself. The more he gives to others, the more he possesses of his own. The Way of Heaven is to benefit others and not to injure. The Way of the sage is to act but not to compete.

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 4.0

Play · Greek tragedy · Tragedy (play)

A woman's vows I write upon the wave.

Sophocles

Unknown drama · 400 BC

★ 3.8

Scripture · Religious literature

The joy of the Lord is your strength.

Nehemiah

Nehemiah 8:10 · 400 BC

★ 3.8

Philosophical literature · Religious literature

He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know.

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 2.4

Philosophical literature · Religious literature

Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear?

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 2.4

Philosophical literature · Religious literature

If you try to change it, you will ruin it. Try to hold it, and you will lose it.

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 2.4

Philosophical literature · Religious literature

Let people hold on to these: Manifest plainness, Embrace simplicity, Reduce selfishness, Have few desires.

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 2.4

Philosophical literature · Religious literature

When the people of the world all know beauty as beauty, There arises the recognition of ugliness. When they all know the good as good, There arises the recognition of evil.

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 2.3

Philosophical literature · Religious literature

The pursuit of learning is to increase day after day. The pursuit of Tao is to decrease day after day. It is to decrease and further decrease until one reaches the point of taking no action. No action is undertaken, and yet nothing is left undone.

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 2.3

Every man is like the company he is wont to keep.

Euripides

Phoenix · 400 BC

★ 2.1

The god Visit the sins of the fathers upon the children.

Euripides

Phrixus · 400 BC

★ 2.1

Play · Greek tragedy · Tragedy (play)

No man loves like him that's growing old.

Sophocles

Acrisius · 400 BC

★ 2.1

Philosophical literature · Religious literature

He who knows others is wise; He who knows himself is enlightened.

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching · 400 BC

★ 1.6