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| Quote | Source or Author |
| Ους τρεφεις αγαπα Love whom you rear. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Νεωτερον διδασκε Teach a youngster. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Πρεσβυτερον αιδου Respect the elder. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Μανθανων μη καμνε Do not tire of learning. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Κακιαν μισει Despise evil. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Πλουτει δικιως Acquire wealth justly. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Γηρας προσδεχου Accept old age. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Καιρον προσδεχου Accept due measure. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Το συμφερον θηρω Pursue what is profitable. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Φιλιαν φυλαττε Guard friendship. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Αμαρτανων μετανοει Repent of error. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Πραττε αμετανοητως Act without repenting. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Πονει μετ ευκλειας Struggle with glory. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Ηττω υπο δικαιου Be overcome by justice | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Σαυτον ισθι Be Yourself | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Καιρον γνωθι Know your opportunity. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Φιλοις βοηθει Help your friends. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Αρχε σεαυτου Control yourself. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Φρονησιν ασκει Exercise prudence. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Μηδεν αγαν Nothing to excess. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Παςιν αρμοζου Be accommodating in everything. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Ευλογει παντας Speak well of everyone. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Σοφοις χρω Consult the wise. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Λαβων αποδος Return what you have received. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Αισχυνην σεβου Revere a sense of shame. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Τυχην στεργε Be fond of fortune. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Ονειδς εχθαιρε Detest disgrace. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Κτωμενος ηδου Be happy with what you have. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Βιας μη εχου Do not depend on strength. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Φιλοφρονει πασιν Deal kindly with everyone. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Περας επιτελει μη αποδειλιων Finish the race without shrinking back. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| Ευπροσηγορος γινου Be courteous. | -- 7 Sages - Commandments |
| To the wise man, nothing is foreign or impracticable. | -- Antisthenes. Diogenes Laertius More: Antisthenes |
| The wise man will be guided in his public acts not by the established laws butby the law of virtue. | -- Antisthenes. Diogenes Laertius More: Antisthenes |
| Dionysius asked why philosophers went to rich men’s houses while rich men no longer went to visit philosophers. The one know what they need while the other does not. | -- Aristippus. Diogenes Laertius. |
| What is gained by philosophy? The ability to feel at ease in any society. | -- Aristippus. Diogenes Laertius. |
| If things are good in themselves, the good will appear as something identical in them all, but the accounts of the goodness in honour, wisdom, and pleasure are diverse. The good therefore is not some common element answering to one Idea. | -- Aristotle. Nichomachean Ethics. I.6. |
| Lovers of what is noble find pleasant the things that are by nature pleasant; since virtue is by nature pleasant, they by virtuous actions find their pleasures within themselves. | -- Aristotle. Nichomachean Ethics.I.8. |
| Is happiness to be acquired by learning, by habit, or some other form of training? It seems to come as a result of virtue and some process of learning and to be among the godlike things since its end is godlike and blessed. | -- Aristotle. Nichomachean Ethics.I.9. |
| It was a saying of his that education was an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity. | -- Diogenes Laërtius Aristotle. xi. |
| Wisdom is goodness of the rational part that is productive of the things contributing to happiness. Gentleness is goodness of the passionate part that makes people difficult to move to anger. Courage is goodness of the passionate part that makes them undismayed by fear of death. [4] Sobriety of mind is goodness of the appetitive part that makes them not desirous of the base pleasures of sensual enjoyment. Self-control is goodness of the appetitive part that enables men by means of reason to restrain their appetite when it is set on base pleasures. Righteousness is goodness of the spirit shown in distributing what is according to desert. Liberality is goodness of spirit shown in spending rightly on fine objects. Great-spiritedness is goodness of spirit that enables men to bear good fortune and bad, honor and dishonor. | -- Aristotle Virtues and Vices, translated by H. Rackham |
| [D]ifferent people give the name of happy to different persons, as was said before too; and Anaxagoras of Clazomenae when asked 'Who is the happiest man?' said 'None of those whom you think, but he would seem to you an odd sort of person.' But Anaxagoras answered in that way because he saw that the man who put the question supposed it to be impossible to receive the appellation 'happy' without being great and beautiful or rich, whereas he himself perhaps thought that the person who humanly speaking enjoys bliss is he that lives by the standard of justice without pain and in purity, or participates in some form of divine contemplation. | -- Aristotle Eudemian Ethics |
| [T]he things related to the happy conduct of life being three, the things already mentioned as the greatest possible goods for men—goodness, wisdom and pleasure, we see that there are also three ways of life in which those to whom fortune gives opportunity invariably choose to live, the life of politics, the life of philosophy, and the life of enjoyment. | -- Aristotle Eudemian Ethics |
| When the virtuous man takes less than his share, he perhaps gets more than his share of some other good, e.g. honour. | -- Aristotle. Nichomachean Ethics.V.9. |
| It belongs to wisdom to take counsel, to judge the goods and evils and all the things in life that are desirable and to be avoided, to use all the available goods finely, to behave rightly in society, to observe due occasions, to employ both speech and action with sagacity, to have expert knowledge of all things that are useful. | -- Aristotle. Virtues and Vices. |
| If we consider the function of man to be a certain kind of life, and this to be an activity of the soul implying a rational principle, and the function of a good man to be the noble performance of these, and if any action is well performed when it is performed in accordance with the appropriate principle; if this is the case, human good turns out to be activity of the soul in accordance with virtue. | -- Aristotle. Nichomachean Ethics.I.7. |
| Vice, however, is sufficient in itself to secure misery, even if it be ever so abundantly furnished with corporeal and external goods. | -- Aristotle. From Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers. R.D. Hicks, Ed. |
| To gentleness belongs ability to bear reproaches and slights with moderation, and not to embark on revenge quickly, and not to be easily provoked to anger, but free from bitterness and contentiousness, having tranquillity and stability in the spirit. | -- Aristotle Virtues and Vices, translated by H. Rackham |
| We must first roughly sketch the good and later fill in the details; anyone is capable of articulating what has once been well outlined. The beginning is thought to be more than half of the whole. | -- Aristotle. Nichomachean Ethics.I.7. |
| Some identify Happiness with virtue, some with practical wisdom, others with a kind of philosophical wisdom, others add or exclude pleasure and yet others include prosperity. We agree with those who identify happiness with virtue, for virtue belongs with virtuous behaviour and virtue is only known by its acts. | -- Aristotle. Nichomachean Ethics.I.8. |
| To sobriety of mind it belongs not to value highly bodily pleasures and enjoyments, not to be covetous of every enjoyable pleasure, to fear disorder, and to live an orderly life in small things and great alike. Sobriety of mind is accompanied by orderliness, regularity, modesty, caution. | -- Aristotle Virtues and Vices, translated by H. Rackham |
| The self-sufficient we define as that which when isolated makes life desirable and complete, and such we think happiness to be. It cannot be exceeded and is therefore the end of action. | -- Aristotle. Nichomachean Ethics.I.7. |
| Now it is thought to be the mark of a man of practical wisdom to be able to deliberate well about what is good and expedient for himself, not in some particular respect, e.g. about what sorts of thing conduce to health or to strength, but about what sorts of thing conduce to the good life in general. | -- Aristotle. Nichomachean Ethics. 6.5. |
| The question was once put to him, how we ought to behave to our friends; and the answer he gave was, 'As we should wish our friends to behave to us.' | -- Diogenes Laërtius Aristotle. xi. More: Aristotle Quotations |
| To the question, "What do people gain by telling lies?" his answer was, "Just this, that when they speak the truth they are not believed." | -- Aristotle. From Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers. R.D. Hicks, Ed. |
| Virtue, is of two kinds, intellectual and moral; intellectual owes its birth and growth to teaching while moral virtue comes to us through habit. None of the moral virtues arises in us by nature for nothing in nature can change its nature; we are adapted by nature to receive them and by habit, perfect them. | -- Aristotle. Nichomachean Ethics II.1 |
| And he [Aristotle] regarded virtue as not of itself sufficient to ensure happiness; bodily goods and external goods were also necessary, for the wise man would be miserable if he lived in the midst of pains, poverty, and similar circumstances. | -- Aristotle. From Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers. R.D. Hicks, Ed. |
| [Aristotle] used to declare education to be an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity. | -- Aristotle. From Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers. R.D. Hicks, Ed. |
| Justice he [Aristotle] defined as a virtue of soul which distributes according to merit. Education he declared to be the best provision for old age. | -- Aristotle. From Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers. R.D. Hicks, Ed. |
| Men generally agree that the highest good attainable by action is happiness, and identify living well and doing well with happiness. | -- Aristotle. Nichomachean Ethics. I.4 |
| Another of his sayings was, that education was the best viaticum of old age. | Diogenes Laërtius Aristotle. xi. |
| Wisdom is goodness of the rational part [of the spirit] that is productive of the things contributing to happiness. | -- Aristotle. Virtues and Vices. |
| He said too that the wise man was not exempt from all passions, but indulged them in moderation. | -- Aristotle. From Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers. R.D. Hicks, Ed. |
| The chief good he (Aristotle) has defined to be the exercise of virtue in a perfect life. | -- Diogenes Laërtius Aristotle. xiii. |
| Should we not say that he is happy whose acts are virtuous and has adequate external goods for his lifetime? | -- Aristotle. Nichomachean Ethics 10. |
| On one occasion Aristotle was asked how much educated men were superior to those uneducated: 'As much,' said he, 'as the living are to the dead.' | -- Diogenes Laërtius Aristotle xi. |
| Solon's advice holds good, not to call a man happy while he is alive, but only when he has reached the end), for nothing incomplete is happy, since it is not a whole. | -- Aristotle Eudemian Ethics |
| Mock-modest people who understate things seem more attractive in character, for they have no thought of gain but rather to avoid any parade of qualities which might bring reputation that they disclaim. Some seem boastful through moderation, like Spartan dress, for both excess and great deficiency are boastful. | -- Aristole. Nichomachean Ethics. IV.7. |
| Wise men have said after observation and experience, that he who has much is in need of much, and that great want arises from great abundance and not from great lack, because many things are wanted to maintain the many things you have. It is not possible for one who wants fifteen thousand cloaks not to want more things; if I want more than I possess, by taking away from what I have I shall be contented with what remains. | -- Favorinus. Aulus Gellius Attic Nights. 2.IX.VIII. |
| Taurus quotes Demosthenes admonishing a youth who justified a foolish action by saying it had often been done before: Say not that this has often been done, but that it ought to be done, for if anything was ever done contrary to the laws, and you followed that example, you would not escape punishment, but would suffer more severely. If anyone had been punished for this act you would not have proposed it, so if you suffer punishment now, no one else will propose it. | -- Aulus Gellius Attic Nights. 2.X.XIX. |
| There is nothing more foolish than those men who think that good could exist, if there were no evil. | -- Chrysippus. Aulus Gellius Attic Nights. 2.VII.I. |
| Avoid, as you would a rock, a strange and unfamiliar word. | -- Gaius Caesar. On Analogy. Aulus Gellius Attic Nights.1.I.X. |
| Ask not of friends what you yourself can do. | -- Ennius. Saturne. Aulus Gellius Attic Nights. 1.II.XXIX. |
| Avarice implies a desire for money, which no wise man covets; steeped as it were with noxious poisons, it renders the most manly body and soul effeminate; it is ever unbounded, nor can either plenty or want make it less. | Sallust. Catiline. Aulus Gellius Attic Nights.1.III.I. |
| Every act is of this nature: it is in itself neither base nor honourable, but becomes so by the manner in which it is done; if it is done rightly and honourably, it is honourable, but if it is not rightly done, it is shameful. It is the same with love. | -- Taurus after Plato’s Symposium. Aulus Gellius Attic Nights. 3.XVII. XX. |
| One should not vie in abusive language with the basest of men or wrangle with foul words with the shameless and wicked, else you become like them. | -- Quintus Metellus Numidicus. Aulus Gellius Attic Nights. 2.VII.XI. |
| If through toil you accomplish a good deed, that toil will quickly pass, the good deed will not leave you so long as you live; but if through pleasure you do anything dishonourable, the pleasure will quickly pass, that dishonourable act will remain with you for ever. | -- Marcus Cato. Aulus Gellius Attic Nights. 3.XVI. I. |
| If you had given to philosophy a twelfth part of the effort you spent in making your baker give you good bread, you would long since have become a good man. As it is, those who know him value him at a hundred thousand sesterces while no one who knows you would take you at a hundred. | -- Marcus Varro. On Eatables. Aulus Gellius Attic Nights. 3.XV. XIX. p.105. |
| He argued that a wise man would not commit a sin, even if he knew that neither gods nor men would know it. He thought that one ought to refrain from sin, not through fear of punishment or disgrace, but from love of justice and honesty and a sense of duty. If men know that nothing can be hidden for very long, they will sin more reluctantly and more secretly. | -- Aulus Gellius Attic Nights. 2.XII.VXI |
| Life is very like iron. If you use it, it wears out; if you do not it is nevertheless consumed by rust. In the same way we see men worn out by toil; if you toil not you will find sluggishness and torpor more injurious than toil. | -- Aulus Gellius Attic Nights. 2.XI.II. |
| Practice even the things you despair of accomplishing. The left hand, which is ineffectual in many things from want of practice, holds the bridle better than the right through practice. | -- Marcus Aurelius XII.6. |
| Let no act be done without purpose nor otherwise than according to the principles of art. | -- Marcus Aurelius IV.2. |
| Like the physician whose instruments are always ready, so should your principles always be ready. | -- Marcus Aurelius III.13. |
| Nothing belongs to a man which does not belong to a man as a man. Possessions are not required by a man's nature to reach its end. That which aids towards this goal is good and it comes from within alone. The more external things a man deprives himself of and the more patiently he endures the loss, in the same degree is he a better man. | -- Marcus Aurelius V.15. |
| Wander no longer at hazard. Hasten to the end that you have set before you, throw away idle hopes, come to your own aid while it is still in your power. | -- Marcus Aurelius III.14. |
| Nothing belongs to a man which does not belong to a man as a man. Possessions are not required by a man's nature to reach its end. That which aids towards this goal is good and it comes from within alone. The more external things a man deprives himself of and the more patiently he endures the loss, in the same degree is he a better man. | -- Marcus Aurelius V.15. |
| Always observe how ephemeral and worthless humans are, what was yesterday a little mucus tomorrow will be ashes. Pass this time in conformity with nature and when you fall off the tree like a ripe olive, bless the tree that harboured you. | -- Marcus Aurelius IV.48. |
| How are you now employing your soul and your governing principle? As a child, a young man, a feeble woman, tyrant or wild beast? | -- Marcus Aurelius V.11. |
| What is your art? To be good according to the general principles of the universe and of the proper constitution of man. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.5. |
| How plain it appears that there is no other condition of life so well suited for philosophising as this in which we happen to be. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.7. |
| Practice even the things you despair of accomplishing. The left hand, which is ineffectual in many things from want of practice, holds the bridle better than the right through practice. | -- Marcus Aurelius XII.6. |
| When you are proceeding according to right reason neither let others turn you aside, nor let them cause you to lose your benevolent feelings towards them. It is weakness both to be vexed at them and to be diverted from your course of action through fear. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.9. |
| No nature is inferior to art since the arts imitate the nature of things. As this is so, the most perfect nature cannot fall short of the skill of art. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.10. |
| Many of the pursuits and avoidances which disturb you do not come to you, rather do you go to them. Allow your judgement of them rest and they will remain quiet as you will be neither pursuing nor avoiding. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.11. |
| Those who do not keep the same purpose in life cannot be the same though life. What should this purpose be? Not all agree on what the majority consider good, but most agree that what is good for society is good for all and should be man’s purpose. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.21. |
| The rational soul loves its neighbour, truth, modesty, and loves nothing above itself, which is also a property of Law. Right reason and the Reason of justice are the same. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.1. |
| If you have done something for the general good you have had your reward; keep this in mind and never stop doing good. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.4. |
| Suppose any man shall despise me. That is his business. I shall be at pains not to be discovered doing or saying anything deserving contempt. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.13. |
| How unsound and insincere is he who says: I have determined to deal with you in a fair way. There is no occasion to give this notice; | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.15. |
| When a man appears to have done wrong, ask how you know this is a wrongful act? If he has done wrong, how do you know that he has not condemned himself? He who would not have bad man do wrong is like one who would not have the fig tree bear figs. Whatever is necessary must be; what else can the man with such a character do? If you are irritated, cure this man’s disposition. | -- Marcus Aurelius XII.16. |
| The voice ought to be written plainly on the forehead; a man’s character immediately shows in his eyes. The man who is honest should be like the man who smells so strongly the passerby must smell him whether he wants to or not. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.15. |
| The affectation of simplicity is like a crooked stick. Nothing is worse than a false friendship. The good, simple, and benevolent show all these things in their eyes and there can be no mistake. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.15. |
| It is in ourpower to form and to erase opinions from our minds. When a thing conforms to nature, rejoice in it, if contrary to nature, seek what is conformable to your own nature and strive towards this even if it brings no reputation. Every man is allowed to seek his own good. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.16. |
| Consider where each thing comes from, of what it consists, what it will change into, what it will then become and see that it sustains no harm. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.17. |
| There are four principal aberrations of the superior faculty that you must guard against, and when you detect them you must expunge them: this thought is not necessary; this is antisocial; I am not speaking my true thought; this self reproach is evidence that the divine part is being overpowered by the less honourable part, the body and its gross pleasures. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.19. |
| Isn’t it strange that only your intelligent part should be disobedient and discontented with its place? It is only subjected to things in accord with nature. Any movement towards injustice, intemperance, anger, grief and fear is the act of one who deviates from nature. When the ruling faculty is discontented with what happens it deserts its post. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.20. |
| Keep in mind one of the men of former times who practiced virtue. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.26. |
| The pythagoreans bid us look in the morning to the heavens that we may be reminded of those bodies which continually do the same things and the manner in which they do it and of their purity and nudity for there is no veil over a star. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.27. |
| Consider what a man Socrates was when he dressed himself in a skin after Xanthippe had taken his cloak and gone out, and what Socrates said to his friends who were ashamed of him and drew back when they saw him dressed thus. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.28. |
| All those things you wish to arrive at by a circuitous path you can have now if you don’t refuse them to yourself. You must take no notice of the past, trust the future to providence and conform present conduct with piety and justice. Conformable to piety so that you may be content with the lot assigned you by nature. Conformable to justice so that you may always speak the truth freely, without disguise, and do all things according to law and the worth of each. Let not another man’s wickedness, opinion, voice, or the impressions of the poor flesh hinder you, for the passive part will be enough. You will never fear not having lived according to nature and will be worthy of the universe that produced you. You will cease to be a stranger in your native land, wondering at things that happen daily as if they were unexpected. You will become independent. | -- Marcus Aurelius XII.1. |
| If you separate the ruling principle from all that is attached to it by the impressions of the senses and thoughts of things to come, and if you strive to live only what is really your life, the present, then you will pass the time remaining to you free of perturbations, nobly and obedient to your daemon. | -- Marcus Aurelius XII.3. |
| I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all other men and yet sets less value on his opinion of himself than on the opinions of others. ....We have so much more respect for what our neighbours think than what we think ourselves! | -- Marcus Aurelius XII.4. |
| The man to whom good only comes in due season and who has done more or fewer things according to right reason and to whom it makes no difference whether he contemplates the world for a longer or shorter term; to this man death is no terrible thing. | -- Marcus Aurelius XII.35 |
| Wrong your soul and you lose the opportunity of honouring yourself. | -- Marcus Aurelius II.6. |
| Think steadfastly every moment to do what you have in hand with simple dignity and give yourself relief from other thoughts. If you do every act as if it were your last, without carelessness, hypocrisy or self love and with reason and are content with the lot that has been given you, you will see how few things are necessary for a quiet life like the life of the gods. | -- Marcus Aurelius II.5. |
| Study not to be distracted by externals. | -- Marcus Aurelius II.7. |
| Not observing another man's thoughts may not bring unhappiness, but not observing your own thoughts will bring unhappiness. | -- Marcus Aurelius II.8. |
| Realize your part in the whole; none can hinder you from doing and saying things according to the nature of which you are a part. | -- Marcus Aurelius II.9. |
| Theophrastus believed that offences committed through desire are more blameable than those committed through anger. The offence which is committed with pleasure is more blameable then that committed with pain. | -- Marcus Aurelius II.9. |
| You may depart this life at any moment, so regulate every thought and act accordingly. Death, life, honour, dishonour, pleasure, pain, all these things happen to good men and bad, and being things that make us neither better nor worse they are neither good nor evil. | -- Marcus Aurelius II.11. |
| How quickly things disappear; it is the operation of nature and of the universe. | -- Marcus Aurelius II.12. |
| Of human life time is a point, substance in flux, perception dull, the whole subject to putrefaction, the soul a whirl, fortune hard to divine and fame devoid of judgement. What then is able to conduct man? Philosophy. | -- Marcus Aurelius II.17. |
| Socrates used to call the opinions of the many Lamiae [vampires], to frighten children. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.23. |
| Nothing is more wretched than the man who occupies himself with all the questions on earth and never looks into himself. He is ignorant of good and evil. | -- Marcus Aurelius II.13. |
| Should you live forever, remember that no man loses any life other than that which he is now living nor lives another than that he now loses. The longest and the shortest are thus brought to the same and the present is the same to all. A man cannot lose either the past or the future and the present is the only time a man can be deprived of, it is the only time he has. | -- Marcus Aurelius II.14. |
| All is opinion. | -- Marcus Aurelius II.15. |
| Cast away opinion and you are saved. Who hinders you? | -- Marcus Aurelius XII.25. |
| When you are troubled by anything, you have forgotten that all things happen according to the universal nature, that a man’s wrongful act is nothing to you, that we are a society of intelligences where every man’s intelligence is a god and efflux of the divinity. Nothing is man’s own; his body, his child and his very soul came from the deity. You have forgotten that everything is opinion and lastly you have forgotten that every man lives in the present time only and soon losses even this. | -- Marcus Aurelius XII.26. |
| Often bring to mind those who have complained strongly of anything, those who have been most conspicuous by fame, misfortune, enmities or fortunes of any kind and then think how they are now. Smoke, ash and a tale or not even a tale. Think of the eager pursuit of anything conjoined with pride and how worthless everything is after which men strain and how much more philosophical it is for a man, given the opportunities presented to him, to show himself just, temperate and obedient to the gods. Do all this with simplicity for the pride that is proud in its want of pride is the most intolerable of all. | -- Marcus Aurelius XII.27. |
| Everything is opinion and opinion is in your power. Change your opinion at will, and like a mariner who has doubled a promontory, you will find a calm, stable and waveless bay. | -- Marcus Aurelius XII.22. |
| The cessation of any activity, including life, does not cause evil. | -- Marcus Aurelius XII.23. |
| Three principles. FIRST: Do nothing aimlessly or other than as Justice herself would act so that what happens to you comes from Chance or Providence and you must blame neither. SECOND: Remember what every being is from the moment of receiving the seed to the time of receiving a soul and the giving it back the same and of what things every being is compounded and into what things it is resolved. THIRD: If you were raised up above the earth to observe the variety of humanity and other beings and understand them and their duration, would you be proud of what you see? | -- Marcus Aurelius XII.24. |
| First, do nothing inconsiderately or without purpose; second, act for no purpose that doesn’t have a beneficial social end. | -- Marcus Aurelius XII.20. |
| Either there is fatal necessity and invincible order, a kind of providence, or there is confusion without purpose and without direction. If an invincible necessity, why do you resist? If there is a providence, make yourself worthy of the divinity’s help. If there is uncontrolled confusion, be content that in such a tempest you have in yourself a ruling intelligence that cannot be carried away. | -- Marcus Aurelius XII.14 |
| Does the light of the lamp shine without losing its splendour until it is extinguished? Shall the truth, justice and temperance which is in you be extinguished before death? | -- Marcus Aurelius XII.15. |
| If it is not right, don’t do it; if it is not right, don’t say it. | -- Marcus Aurelius XII.17. |
| Be in harmony with nature. | -- Marcus Aurelius IV.23. |
| You are a slave; free speech is not for you. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.30. |
| Neither in writing nor in reading will you be able to lay down rules for others before you have first learned to obey rules yourself; much more is this true in life. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.29. |
| Within ten days you will seem a god to those to whom you now seem a beast if you return to your principles and follow reason. | -- Marcus Aurelius IV.16. |
| Take away your opinion and your complaint is taken away. | -- Marcus Aurelius IV.7. |
| The character of your thoughts will be the character of your mind for the soul is dyed by these thoughts. Therefore dye them with such thoughts as: where a man can live he can live well; everything has been constituted for a reason; that we are constituted for society; that the inferior are created for the superior; that of those that have life, those with reason are superior. | -- Marcus Aurelius V.16. |
| Everything that is beautiful is beautiful in itself and terminates in itself. Neither worse nor better is a thing made by praise. | -- Marcus Aurelius IV.20. |
| That which does not make a man worse does not make his life worse nor does it harm him from without or from within. | -- Marcus Aurelius IV.8. |
| Do not have the same opinion of things as he who does you wrong, or such opinions as he wishes you to have, but see things as they are in truth. | -- Marcus Aurelius IV. 11. |
| Do not allow your reason to be whirled about; maintain respect for justice and the faculty of understanding impressions. | -- Marcus Aurelius IV.22. |
| Do what is necessary, what the reason of a social animal demands, for this brings the tranquillity that comes from doing well and which comes of doing few things. The greatest part of what we do and say is unnecessary. First take away unnecessary speech, then thought and the unnecessary act will follow of their own. | -- Marcus Aurelius IV.24. |
| Try how the life of the good man suits you, the life of a man satisfied with his place in the universe, with his acts and benevolent disposition. | -- Marcus Aurelius IV.25. |
| He is poor who has need of another and has not in himself all things useful to life. | -- Marcus Aurelius IV.29. |
| When a man kisses his child, said Epictetus, He should whisper to himself: Tomorrow perchance you will die. No word is a bad omen that expresses any work of nature. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.34. |
| No man can rob us of our free will. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.36. |
| Do not waste thy life in thoughts about others for you lose the opportunity of doing something useful when you have these thoughts. We wander from our ruling power. We ought to check in our thoughts everything that is without purpose and useless and most of all that which is overcurious, malignant, or of frivolous pleasures. One should be able to answer 'what are your thoughts' with candour.... He values little praise from the great number of men who are unsatisfied with themselves. | -- Marcus Aurelius III.4. |
| Labour willingly for the common interest and consideration and without distraction. Let not studied ornament set off thy thoughts; be not of too many words or busy with too many things. Hold your manly post until you are called elsewhere. Be cheerful and seek not external help; a man must stand erect and not be kept erect by others. | -- Marcus Aurelius III.5. |
| Make for thyself a definition of the thing that is presented to you so to see it distinctly, nude and entire. Nothing so elevates the mind as the ability to examine methodically and truly every object and see what value it has and its relation to the whole. | -- Marcus Aurelius III.11. |
| Short is the longest posthumous fame, and only continued by a succession of poor human beings. | -- Marcus Aurelius III.10. |
| We ought to consider that our life is daily wasting away and should we livelonger it is not sure that our understanding will not decline. The conception of things and the understanding of them perish often before we do; therefore we must make haste today. | -- Marcus Aurelius III.1. |
| The mind of the chastened and purified man has no corrupt matter, servility, nor attachment to this world that he need fear at death. | -- Marcus Aurelius III.8. |
| If you work at what is before you following right reason, vigorously, calmly, without distraction, expecting nothing, fearing nothing, and satisfied with your occupation according to nature and with truth in all you say, you will live happy and none shall be able to prevent this. | -- Marcus Aurelius III.12. |
| Birth and death are mysteries of nature, compositions and decompositions of matter of which no man need be ashamed. | -- Marcus Aurelius IV.5. |
| Love the art, poor as it may be, which you have learned and pass through life as one who has entrusted to the gods his soul; be neither slave nor tyrant of any man. | -- Marcus Aurelius IV.31. |
| Observe constantly that all things take place by change and accustom yourself to consider the nature of the universe is to change and make new things. What exists is the seed of what will be. | -- Marcus Aurelius IV.36. |
| Examine men's ruling principles, even the wise, what things they avoid and what they pursue. | -- Marcus Aurelius IV.38. |
| Men seek retreats in the country, sea shores and mountains. This is the mark of the commonest sort of man for it is in your power wherever you may be to retire into yourself. Nowhere is more quiet or freer from trouble than a man's soul; tranquility is no more than the good ordering of the mind. Rational animals exist for one another; to endure is a part of justice as is knowing that men do wrong involuntarily. Things do not touch the soul for they are external and immovable and our perturbations come from opinions that are within. All of what you see is changeable and will cease to be as you have often seen it. The universe is transformation; life is opinion. | -- Marcus Aurelius IV.3. |
| Never value anything as profitable to yourself which will compel your to break your promise, to lose your self respect, to hate a man, to suspect, to curse, to act the hypocrite, or to desire what will not bear the light of day. He who prefers his own intelligence and daemon and its perfection acts no tragic part, nor groans, nor needs solitude or much company, and will neither pursue nor fly death. | -- Marcus Aurelius III.7. |
| In the sequence of events those that follow are always fitted to those that went before. All things are arranged harmoniously and events exhibit no mere succession, but a wonderful relationship. | -- Marcus Aurelius IV.45. |
| Words that were formerly familiar are now antiquated as are the names of those who were famed of old. All things soon pass away. Where ought we to apply our serious pains? Thoughts just, acts social, true words and the acceptance of all that happens. | -- Marcus Aurelius IV.33. |
| To look for a fig in winter is the act of a madman. | -- Marcus Aurelius XI.33. |
| 4 A man, doubting another’s philosophic nature, told him that he would believe him a philosopher if he bore all the insults heaped upon him calmly and patiently. The other adopted patience for a time and bore the insults and then tauntingly said: Now do you recognize that I am a philosopher? To which the doubter replied: I should have, had you remained silent. Anon. | -- Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy. II.VII. |
| If bodily pleasures make for happiness, are not the beasts happiest of all since their whole life is passed in pleasing the body? | -- Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy. III.VII. |
| Nature gives to each thing what is fitting for it to endure as long as it can. | -- Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy. III.XI. |
| The most sacred good is that of friendship, a good of virtue rather than fortune. | -- Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy. III.II. |
| True and perfect happiness makes a man self-sufficient, powerful, respected and happy. | -- Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy. III.IX. |
| By acquiring justice we become just. By acquiring wisdom we become wise. By acquiring divinity we become gods. The happy man is a god. | -- Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy. III.X. |
| The whole concern of men moves by different roads toward the same end: happiness, the good which once attained leaves no room for desire. Some men believe the highest good is to want for nothing and they labour for wealth. Others hold the highest good to be honour and distinction. Yet others think the highest good lies in power and they seek to rule. Finally there are those who measure the good in pleasure. | -- Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy. III.II. |
| Do those who are drawn to us because of our good fortune rather than for our virtues really merit the title of ‘friend.’ A man made friend by good fortune is made an enemy by misfortune. | -- Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy. III.IV. |
| How can you have all of a thing without impoverishing others? | -- Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy. II.IV. |
| Nothing is miserable unless you think it so. | -- Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy. II.IV. |
| What has Fortune taken from you that she hasn’t also given you? What is your right to anything you have, you that come into the world with nothing? You should thank Fortune for what she has allowed you to use for a little while rather than complain over the loss of what was never yours. | -- Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy. II. II. |
| Fortune remains consistent to her inconsistency. She comes and goes without any concern for you. Like the wind that takes you wherever once you spread your sail. | -- Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy. II. I. |
| When men's minds have lost sight of true principles they are quick to take up false ones that thereafter obscure their vision. | -- Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy. I. VII. |
| If happiness is the highest good, and what can be taken away is a transitory good, and the only thing you have that cannot be taken away is yourself, why do you seek fortune? | -- Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy. II.IV. |
| The wise man can do what he desires whereas the evil man can act as he pleases, but cannot obtain what he desires. Plato. Gorgias. | -- Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy. IV.II. |
| The names of sufficiency, power, fame, respect, and pleasure are different, but their substance is the same. | -- Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy. III.IX. |
| Quanto superiores simus, tanto nos geramus summissius. The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk. | -- Cicero De Officiis I.90 |
| Sed omne, quod est honestum, id quattuor partium oritur ex aliqua. Aut enim in perspicientia veri sollertiaque versatur aut in hominum societate tuenda tribuendoque suum cuique et rerum contractarum fide aut in animi excelsi atque invicti magnitudine ac robore aut in omnium, quae fiunt quaeque dicuntur ordine et modo, in quo inest modestia et temperantia. Quae quattuor quamquam inter se colligata atque implicata sunt, tamen ex singulis certa officiorum genera nascuntur, velut ex ea parte, quae prima discripta est, in qua sapientiam et prudentiam ponimus, inest indagatio atque inventio veri, eiusque virtutis hoc munus est proprium. But all that is morally right rises from some one of four sources: it is concerned either \(1\) with the full perception and intelligent development of the true; or \(2\) with the conservation of organized society, with rendering to every man his due, and with the faithful discharge of obligations assumed; or \(3\) with the greatness and strength of a noble and invincible spirit; or \(4\) with the orderliness and moderation of everything that is said and done, wherein consist temperance and self-control. | -- Cicero De Officiis. |
| Cumque eas perturbationes antiqui naturalis esse dicerent et rationis expertis aliaque in parte animi cupiditatem, alia rationem collocarent, ne his quidem adsentiebatur. Nam et perturbationes voluntarias esse putabat opinionisque iudicio suscipi et omnium perturbationum arbitrabatur matrem esse immoderatam quamdam intemperantiam. Zeno held that the wise man was devoid of the ‘diseases’ of sorrow, desire, fear and delight, and held that even the emotions are a voluntary opinion of judgement; the mother of all emotion was a sort of intemperance and want of moderation. | -- Cicero. Academica I. |
| Nec enim umquam sum adsensus veteri illi laudatoque proverbio, quod monet 'mature fieri senem, si diu velis senex esse.' Ego vero me minus diu senem esse mallem quam esse senem, ante quam essem. For I have never given in to that ancient and much-praised proverb: Old when young Is old for long. For myself, I had rather be an old man a somewhat shorter time than an old man \"before\" my time. | -- Cicero De Senectute X |
| Habenda ratio valetudinis, utendum exercitationibus modicis, tantum cibi et potionis adhibendum ut reficiantur vires, non opprimantur. We must look after our health, use moderate exercise, take just enough food and drink to recruit, but not to overload, our strength. | -- Cicero. De Senectute XI |
| The Master said, \"To live in obscurity, and yet practice wonders, in order to be mentioned with honor in future ages:-this is what I do not do\". | -- Confucius The Doctrine of the Mean |
| While there are no stirrings of pleasure, anger, sorrow, or joy, the mind may be said to be in the state of Equilibrium. When those feelings have been stirred, and they act in their due degree, there ensues what may be called the state of Harmony. This Equilibrium is the great root from which grow all the human actings in the world, and this Harmony is the universal path which they all should pursue. | -- Confucius The Doctrine of the Mean |
| The philosopher Tsang said, "I daily examine myself on three points: -- whether, in transacting business for others, I may have been not faithful; --whether, in intercourse with friends, I may have been not sincere; --whether I may have not mastered and practiced the instructions of my teacher." | -- Confucius Analects |
| The Master said, 'Man is born for uprightness. If a man lose his uprightness, and yet live, his escape from death is the effect of mere good fortune.' | -- Confucius Analects |
| The superior man does what is proper to the station in which he is; he does not desire to go beyond this. | -- Confucius The Doctrine of the Mean |
| Thus it is that the superior man is quiet and calm, waiting for the appointments of Heaven, while the mean man walks in dangerous paths, looking for lucky occurrences. | -- Confucius The Doctrine of the Mean |
| Tsze-kung asked what constituted the superior man. The Master said, \"He acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his actions.\" | -- Confucius Analects |
| When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them. | -- Confucius Analects |
| Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles. | -- Confucius Analects |
| If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given them by the rules of propriety, they will have the sense of shame, and moreover will become good. | -- Confucius Analects |
| The Master said, 'With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow; - I have still joy in the midst of these things. Riches and honours acquired by unrighteousness, are to me as a floating cloud.' | -- Confucius Analects |
| To show forbearance and gentleness in teaching others; and not to revenge unreasonable conduct: -- this is the energy of southern regions, and the good man makes it his study. | -- Confucius The Doctrine of the Mean |
| Justice is doing what should be done, injustice is not doing what should be done but turning away from it. | -- Democritus (Barnes Diels Krantz 256) |
| Fortunate is he who is content with moderate goods, unfortunate he who is discontent with many. | -- Democritus ( Barnes Diels Krantz 286) |
| A man who loves no one is loved by no one. | -- Democritus (Barnes Diels Krantz 103) |
| One should tell the truth, not speak at length. | -- Democritus (Barnes Diels Krantz 225) |
| Frankness is an aspect of liberty, but discerning the right occasion is hazardous. | -- Democritus ( Barnes Diels Krantz 225) |
| Strength and shapeliness are the good things of youth; good sense is the flower of age. | -- Democritus (Barnes Diels Krantz 294) |
| A little wisdom is more honourable than a reputation for great folly. | -- Democritus (Maxims. 1-86) |
| Those who praise the unintelligent do them great harm. | -- Democritus ( Barnes Diels Krantz 113) |
| The world is a stage, life is our entrance: you came, you saw, you left. | -- Democritus (Maxims. 1-86) |
| You should accept favours only if you expect to give greater favours in return. | -- Democritus ( Barnes Diels Krantz 92) |
| It is better to be praised by another than by yourself. | -- Democritus (Barnes Diels Krantz 114) |
| It is irrational not to accommodate yourself to the necessities of life. | -- Democritus ( Barnes Diels Krantz 289) |
| If your character is orderly, your life will be well-ordered. | -- Democritus (Barnes Diels Krantz 61) |
| Do not be eager to know everything lest you become ignorant of everything. | -- Democritus (Barnes Diels Krantz 169) |
| It is the task of good sense to guard against future injustice: it is a mark of insensibility not to defend yourself when it has occurred. | -- Democritus ( Barnes Diels Krantz 193) |
| Men gain contentment from moderation in joy and a measured life: deficiencies and excesses tend to change and to produce large movements in the soul, and souls which move across large intervals are neither stable nor content. | -- Democritus [BDK191] (III i 210) |
| Small favours at the right time are very great for those who receive them. | -- Democritus ( Barnes Diels Krantz 94) |
| One should either be or imitate a good man. | -- Democritus (Barnes Diels Krantz 39) |
| Those who take pleasure in the disasters of their neighbours do not understand how the affairs of fortune are common to all. | -- Democritus ( Barnes Diels Krantz 293) |
| If you believe that the gods observe everything, you will do wrong neither in secret nor openly. | -- Democritus (Barnes Diels Krantz 113) |
| One should avenge to the best of one's ability those who are unjustly treated and not pass them by; for to do so is just and good, not to do so unjust and bad. | -- Democritus (Barnes Diels Krantz 261) |
| Men remember wrongs better than benefits and that is just; for as those who repay their debts need not be praised, those who do not should be blamed and suffer.... | -- Democritus ( Barnes Diels Krantz 265) |
| Boldness is the beginning of action; chance determines the end. | -- Democritus ( Barnes Diels Krantz 269) |
| For beasts, good breeding is bodily strength; for men, grace of character. | -- Democritus ( Barnes Diels Krantz 57) |
| One should avenge to the best of one's ability those who are unjustly treated and not pass them by; for to do so is just and good, not to do so unjust and bad. | -- Democritus (Barnes Diels Krantz 261) |
| Men remember wrongs better than benefits and that is just; for as those who repay their debts need not be praised, those who do not should be blamed and suffer.... | -- Democritus ( Barnes Diels Krantz 265) |
| Boldness is the beginning of action; chance determines the end. | -- Democritus ( Barnes Diels Krantz 269) |
| For beasts, good breeding is bodily strength; for men, grace of character. | -- Democritus ( Barnes Diels Krantz 57) |
| Magnanimity is bearing wrongs lightly. | -- Democritus (Barnes Diels Krantz 46) |
| It is greedy to say everything and to want to listen to nothing. | -- Democritus (Barnes Diels Krantz 86) |
| Courage makes disasters small. | -- Democritus ( Barnes Diels Krantz 213) |
| Voluntary labours make it easier to endure involuntary labours. | -- Democritus ( Barnes Diels Krantz 240) |
| An envious man pains himself as though he were an enemy. | -- Democritus ( Barnes Diels Krantz 88) |
| Mercenary service teaches self-sufficiency in life; bread and a straw mattress are the sweetest cures for hunger and exhaustion. | -- Democritus ( Barnes Diels Krantz 246) |
| There are three departments in which a man who is to be good and noble must be trained. The first concerns the will to get and will to avoid; he must be trained not to fail to get what he wills to get nor fall into what he wills to avoid. The second is concerned with impulse to act and not to act, and, in a word, the sphere of what is fitting: that we should act in order, with due consideration, and with proper care. The object of the third is that we may not be deceived, and may not judge at random, and generally it is concerned with assent. | -- Epictetus The Discourses of Epictetus, Translated by P.E Matheson, [1916] III.II |
| But who does not turn from a man who is dirty, odorous, foul-complexioned, more than from one who is bespattered with muck? The smell of the latter is external and accidental, that of the former comes from want of tendance; it is from within, and shows a sort of inward rottenness. | -- Epictetus Book IV.XI. On Cleanliness. |
| What disturbs men's minds is not events but their judgements on events. | -- Epictetus Enchiridion, Translated by P.E Matheson, [1916] |
| Make it your study then to confront every harsh impression with the words, 'You are but an impression, and not at all what you seem to be'. Then test it by those rules that you possess; and first by this—the chief test of all—'Is it concerned with what is in our power or with what is not in our power?' And if it is concerned with what is not in our power, be ready with the answer that it is nothing to you. | -- Epictetus Enchiridion, Translated by P.E Matheson, [1916] |
| If it is well to fix my attention to-morrow, how much better to do so to-day! If it is profitable to-morrow, much more so is it to-day: that you may be able to do the same to-morrow, and not put off again to the day after. | -- Epictetus IV.XII. On Attention |
| Remember then that if you imagine that what is naturally slavish is free, and what is naturally another's is your own, you will be hampered, you will mourn, you will be put to confusion, you will blame gods and men; but if you think that only your own belongs to you, and that what is another's is indeed another's, no one will ever put compulsion or hindrance on you, you will blame none, you will accuse none, you will do nothing against your will, no one will harm you, you will have no enemy, for no harm can touch you. | -- Epictetus Enchiridion, Translated by P.E Matheson, [1916] |
| He then who can show to each man the conflict which causes his error, and can clearly bring home to him how he fails to do what he wishes and does what he does not wish, is powerful in argument and strong to encourage and convict. For if one shows this, a man will retire from his error of himself; but as long as you do not succeed in showing this, you need not wonder if he persists in his error, for he acts because he has an impression that he is right. | -- Epictetus II.XXVI What Is the Distinctive Character of Error. |
| Who then is the man who is invincible? He whom nothing beyond his will can dismay. | -- Epictetus I.XVIII That We Should Not Be Angry at Men's Errors |
| If you fight against all your sensations, you will have no standard to which to refer, and thus no means of judging even those sensations which you claim are false. | -- Epicurus Principal Doctrines Translated by Robert Drew Hicks (1910) |
| The magnitude of pleasure reaches its limit in the removal of all pain. When pleasure is present, so long as it is uninterrupted, there is no pain either of body or of mind or of both together. | -- Epicurus Principal Doctrines Translated by Robert Drew Hicks (1910) |
| Falsehood and error always depend upon the intrusion of opinion | -- Epicurus. From Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers. R.D. Hicks, Ed. |
| There is nothing in the knowledge of risings and settings and solstices and eclipses and all kindred subjects that contributes to our happiness. | -- Epicurus. From Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers. R.D. Hicks, Ed. |
| There are three motives for evil among men: hatred, envy, and contempt; these the wise man overcomes with reason. | -- Epicurus. From Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers. R.D. Hicks, Ed. |
| Foolish is the man who fears the prospect of death. What causes no annoyance when it is present causes only groundless pain in expectation. | -- Epicurus. From Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers. R.D. Hicks, Ed. |
| The greatest virtue is prudence, from it spring all the others. | -- Epicurus. From Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers. R.D. Hicks, Ed. |
| He who understands the limits of life knows how easy it is to procure enough to remove the pain of want and make the whole of life complete and perfect. | -- Epicurus Principal Doctrines Translated by Robert Drew Hicks (1910) |
| All such desires as lead to no pain when they remain ungratified are unnecessary, and the longing is easily got rid of, when the thing desired is difficult to procure or when the desires seem likely to produce harm. | -- Epicurus Principal Doctrines Translated by Robert Drew Hicks (1910) |
| No pleasure is in itself evil, but the things which produce certain pleasures entail annoyances many times greater than the pleasures themselves. | -- Epicurus Principal Doctrines Translated by Robert Drew Hicks (1910) |
| If men do not put bounds on their terror, they endure as much or more anxiety than the man whose views are quite vague. | -- Epicurus. From Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers. R.D. Hicks, Ed. |
| Life has no terrors for he who does not fear death. | -- Epicurus. From Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers. R.D. Hicks, Ed. |
| Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search when he is old, for no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul. | -- Epicurus. From Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers. R.D. Hicks, Ed. |
| The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool. | -- Epicurus. From Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers. R.D. Hicks, Ed. |
| Plain fare gives as much pleasure as a costly diet when once the pain of want has been removed. | -- Epicurus. From Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers. R.D. Hicks, Ed. |
| When we select our facts, rejecting one equally consistent with the phenomena, we clearly fall away from the study of nature and tumble into myth. | -- Epicurus. From Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers. R.D. Hicks, Ed. |
| Chance seldom interferes with the wise man; his greatest and highest interests have been, are, and will be, directed by reason throughout his whole life. | -- Epicurus Principal Doctrines Translated by Robert Drew Hicks (1910) |
| Mental tranquility means being released from troubles while cherishing a continual remembrance of the highest and most important truths. | -- Epicurus. From Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers. R.D. Hicks, Ed. |
| Of all the means which wisdom acquires to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is friendship. | -- Epicurus Principal Doctrines Translated by Robert Drew Hicks (1910) |
| If men do not put bounds on their terror, they endure as much or more anxiety than the man whose views are quite vague. | -- Epicurus. From Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers. R.D. Hicks, Ed. |
| The just person enjoys. the greatest peace of mind, while the unjust is full of the utmost disquietude. | -- Epicurus Principal Doctrines Translated by Robert Drew Hicks (1910) |
| Moderation is the greatest virtue, wisdom is to speak the truth and act according to Nature. | -- Heraclitus. In Kathleen Freeman's Ancilla to Diels-Kranz 112. |
| To extinguish hubris is more needed than to extinguish a fire. | -- Heraclitus (43) |
| To be evenminded/is the greatest virtue./ Wisdom is to speak/ the truth and act/ in keeping with its nature. | -- Heraclitus 107 |
| Unless you expect the unexpected you will never find truth, for it is hard to discover and hard to attain. | -- Heraclitus (18) |
| The people should fight for their law as for their city wall. | -- Heraclitus (44) |
| All men are able to know themselves and act with moderation. | -- Heraclitus. In Kathleen Freeman's Ancilla to Diels\-Kranz 116. |
| To be temperate is the greatest virtue. Wisdom consists in speaking and acting the truth, giving heed to the nature of things. | -- Heraclitus (112) |
| A man's character is his guardian divinity. | -- Heraclitus (119) |
| Do not put your work off, for a sluggish worker does not fill his barn. While industry makes work go well, a man who puts off work is always at hand-grips with ruin | -- Hesiod Works and Days |
| Never dare taunt a man with the deadly poverty which eats out the heart. The best treasure a man can have is a sparing tongue. If you speak evil, you yourself will soon be worse spoken of. | -- Hesiod Works and Days |
| Foolish the man who leaves what he has, and follows after what he has not. | -- Hesiod Fragments |
| In uerbis etiam tenuis cautusque serendis/ dixeris egregie, notum si callida uerbum/ reddiderit iunctura nouum. When putting words together, you will speak with distinction and care if a skilful connection renders a well-known term with a new twist. | Horace Ars Poetica 46-48. |
| Dimidium facti, qui coepit, habet Once you've started, you're halfway there. | -- Horace Epistles I.2.40 |
| Aequam memento rebus in arduis seruare mentem Remember to keep your mind calm in difficult matters. | Horace Odes II.3 |
| Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero. Seize the day, and don't put too much trust in the morrow. | Horace Odes I.XI.8 |
| Misce stultitiam consiliis breuem: dulce est desipere in loco. Mix a tad of stupidity with your sage advice; sometimes silliness can be pleasing. | -- Horace Odes IV.XII. 27-28 |
| Life is like the Great Games where some go to compete for prizes, others with
wares to sell and the best as spectators; similarly in life some grow up with
servile natures greedy for fame or gain, but the philosopher seeks for truth. | -- Diogenes Laertius |
| The wise new prudence from the wise acquire. And one brave hero fans another's fire. | -- Diomedes. Homer. Il.X. 184 |
| We begin to lose our hesitation to do unseemly things when we lose our hesitation to speak of them. | -- Musonius Fragment XXVI. |
| Do not expect to bring about right-doing in men who are conscious of your own wrong-doing. | -- Musonius Fragment XXXII. |
| Luxury destroys both body and soul and invites injustice because it also begets covetousness. | -- Musonius Fragment XX. |
| One who by living is of use to many has no right to choose to die unless by dying he may be of use to more. | -- Musonius Fragment XXIX. |
| How much nobler than spending money for sticks and stones to spend it on men. | -- Musonius Fragment XIX. |
| How much more profitable than surrounding oneself with a great house it is to make many friends by cheerfully doing good. | -- Musonius Fragment XIX. |
| Since the purpose of food is to produce health and strength, one should eat only that which requires no great outlay, and finally, at table one should have a fitting decorum and moderation, and avoid greedy haste. | -- Musonius Fragment XVIIIB. |
| In the matter of temperance and self-control, is it not much better to be self-controlled and temperate in all one's actions than to be able to say what one ought to do? | -- Musonius Fragment V. |
| The wise man does not value or despise any place as the cause of his happiness or unhappiness; he makes the whole matter depend upon himself .... | -- Musonius Fragment IX. |
| Consider this in your hearts: if you accomplish some good attended with toil, the toil will quickly leave you; but if you do some evil attended with pleasure, the pleasure will quickly pass away, but the bad deed will remain with you always. Cato. | -- Musonius Fragment XLXI. |
| How much more commendable than living in luxury it is to help many people. | -- Musonius Fragment XIX. |
| If one accomplishes some good though with toil, the toil passes, but the good remains; if one does something dishonourable with pleasure, the pleasure passes, but the dishonour remains. | -- Musonius Fragment XLXI. |
| The beginning and foundation of temperance lies in self-control in eating and drinking. | -- Musonius Fragment XVIIIA. |
| The best salve for old age is the very one that is best for youth, namely to live by method and in accord with nature. | -- Musonius Fragment XVII. |
| The study of philosophy is nothing else than to search out by reason what is right and proper and by deeds to put it into practice. | -- Musonius Fragment XIV. |
| A good man can never be wronged by a bad man. | -- Musonius Fragment X. |
| To relax (remittere) the mind is to lose (amittere) it. | -- Musonius Fragment XLXII. |
| One ought to use clothing and shoes in exactly the same way as armour, that is for the protection of the body and not for display. | -- Musonius Fragment XIX. |
| Base men live to eat and drink and good men eat and drink to live. | -- Socrates Plutarch Moralia |
| Well has it been said, "Choose the life that is best, and constant habit will make it pleasant," [Plato] and, in particular, it is profitable for a man, experimenting with each several department of life and especially with those which have to do with the practices which affect the body, to inculcate a fixed habit during periods of stoutest health, so thus to make these things agreeable, familiar, and congenial to his nature, bearing in mind how some men feel and act in times of sickness, being angry and fretful when hot water and gruel, or plain bread, is served to them, calling these things abominable and unpleasant, and abominable and hard-hearted also those who would force such things upon them. | -- Plutarch Moralia Advice About Keeping Well |
| If you become a philosopher, you will live not unpleasantly, but you will learn to subsist pleasantly anywhere and with any resources. | -- Plutarch Moralia On Virtue and Vice. |
| [T]here must be a concurrence of three things in order to produce perfectly right action, and these are: nature, reason, and habit. By reason I mean the act of learning, and by habit constant practice. The first beginnings come from nature, advancement from learning, the practical use from continued repetition, and the culmination from all combined; but so far as any one of these is wanting, the moral excellence must, to this extent, be crippled. For nature without learning is a blind thing, and learning without nature is an imperfect thing, and practice without both is an ineffective thing. | -- Plutarch De liberis educandis. Frank Cole Babbitt, Ed. |
| [I]n the soul lasting joy and gladness cannot possibly be engendered, unless it provide itself first with cheerfulness, fearlessness, and courageousness as a basis to rest upon, or as a calm tranquillity that no billows disturb; otherwise, even though some hope or delectation lure us with a smile, anxiety suddenly breaks forth, like a hidden rock appearing in fair weather, and the soul is overwhelmed and confounded. | -- Plutarch Moralia On Virtue and Vice. |
| Yet it is not difficult for any man to get rid of a bad wife if he be a real man and not a slave; but against his own vice it is not possible to draw up a writing of divorcement and forthwith to be rid of troubles and to be at peace, having arranged to be by himself. | -- Plutarch Moralia On Virtue and Vice. |
| [S]o every occupation and manner of life, if attended by virtue, is untroubled and delightful, while, on the other hand, any admixture of vice renders those things ewhich to others seem splendid, precious, in imposing, only troublesome, sickening, and unwelcome to their possessors. | -- Plutarch Moralia On Virtue and Vice. |
| For a request to be excused, if characterized by cleverness and wit, is no less agreeable than joining in the round of gaiety; and if a man provides a banquet in the same spirit in which he provides a burnt-offering which it is forbidden to taste, and personally abstains when the wine-cup and the table are before him, at the same time volunteering cheerfully some playful allusion to himself, he will create a pleasanter impression than the man who gets drunk and gormandizes for company. | -- Plutarch Moralia Advice About Keeping Well |
| if anybody imagines that those not endowed with natural gifts, who yet have the chance to learn and to apply themselves in the right way to the attaining of virtue, cannot repair the want of their nature and advance so far as in them lies, let him know that he is in great, or rather total, error. | -- Plutarch De liberis educandis. Frank Cole Babbitt, Ed. |
| For indifference ruins a good natural endowment, but instruction amends a poor one; easy things escape the careless, but difficult [p. 11] things are conquered by careful application. | -- Plutarch De liberis educandis. Frank Cole Babbitt, Ed. |
| What bodily strength is not impaired and finally ruined by neglect and luxury and ill condition? | -- Plutarch De liberis educandis. Frank Cole Babbitt, Ed. |
| The pleasant and the good are not identical. The pleasant must be done for the sake of the good, rather than the good for the sake of the pleasant. The pleasant pleases us while the good makes us good. Goodness is due to excellence that does not come haphazardly but through rightness and order. Then the goodness of anything is due to order and arrangement and it is the presence in each thing of the order appropriate to it that makes everything good. The soul that is ordered is better than the unordered soul and the ordered soul is temperate and good. | -- Plato Gorgias. 506.d.e. |
| Everyone ought to say he is good, whether he is or not; whoever does not make such a claim is out of his mind, for a man without some share in justice would be less than human. | -- Plato Protagoras. 323.b. |
| The really important thing is not to live, but to live well, and to live well means the same thing as to live honourably or rightly. | -- Plato Crito. 48.b. |
| It is our hypothesis that it is never right to do a wrong or return a wrong or defend oneself against injury by retaliation. | -- Plato Crito. 49.d. |
| When a man is in training, does he pay attention to all praise and criticism and opinion indiscriminately, or only when it comes from the qualified person, the doctor or trainer? | -- Plato Crito. 47.b. |
| If the temperate soul is good, its foolish and undisciplined opposite is evil. The sound minded man would do his duty to gods and men by being just and to the gods respectful. He must also be courageous, for a man of sound mind will neither pursue nor avoid what he should not: things, pleasures, pains, and stand his ground where duty bids. The sound minded and temperate man will be just, brave, pious and good. He will do well what he does and in doing well be happy. The evil man must be wretched. | -- Plato Gorgias. 507.b.c. |
| Knowledge of what is and what is not to be feared is courage. | -- Plato Protagoras. 360.d. |
| What kind of man am I? One who would gladly be refuted if anything I say is not true, and would gladly refute another who says what is not true, and be no less happy to be refuted than to refute, for I consider that a greater benefit, inasmuch as it is a greater boon to be delivered from the worst of evils oneself than to deliver another. | -- Plato Gorgias. 458.a. |
| It is to our advantage that our neighbour be just and virtuous, and therefore everyone gladly talks about justice and virtue to everyone else and instructs him. | -- Plato Protagoras. 327.b. |
| Dear Pan, and all ye other gods that dwell in this place, grant that I may become fair within, and that such outward things as I have may not war against the spirit within me. May I count him rich who is wise, and as for gold, may I possess so much of it as only a temperate man might bear and carry with him. | -- Plato. Phaedrus. 279. |
| Since we desire to be happy, and we have seen how to be happy by using things rightly, and how rightness and good fortune are provided by knowledge, it follows that every man in every way should try to become as wise as he can. | -- Plato. Euthydemus. 282.a. |
| The most ancient and fertile homes of philosophy among the Greeks are Crete and Sparta, where there are more Sophists than anywhere on earth. Yet, they conceal their wisdom and pretend to be fools so that their superiority over the rest of Greece may not be known to lie in wisdom, but seem to consist in fighting and courage. Their idea is that if real excellence became known, everyone would set to work to become wise. | -- Plato. Protagoras. 342.b. Protagoras |
| It has always been my nature never to accept advice from my friends unless reflection shows that it is the best course that reason offers. | -- Plato Crito. 46.b. |
| We agreed that those who can command themselves are good, and those who cannot, bad. Yet each person has within himself a pair of unwise and conflicting counsellors, whose names are pleasure and pain. | -- Plato. Laws.I. 644. |
| The ignorant neither seek the truth nor crave to be made wise. What makes their case so hopeless is that having neither beauty nor goodness, nor intelligence, they are satisfied with what they are and do not long for virtues they have never known. | -- Plato. Symposium. 204. More: Plato |
| One day Chaerephon went to Delphi and asked this question of the god: is anyone wiser than Socrates? The priestess replied that there was no one. | -- Plato. Apology. 21.a. More: Plato |
| Nihil tamen aeque tibi profuerit ad temperantiam omnium rerum quam frequens cogitatio brevis aevi et huius incerti: quidquid facies, respice ad mortem. But nothing will give you so much help toward moderation as the frequent thought that life is short and uncertain here below; whatever you are doing, have regard to death. | -- Seneca Epistle CXIV. |
| Exemplar hoc magnis regibus ingens; est enim illi mos exercere se in parvis et ingentium rerum documenta in minima parere. 4. Pudeat ab exiguis animalibus non trahere mores, cum tanto hominum moderatior esse animus debeat, quanto vehementius nocet. Great kings will find herein a mighty precedent; for it is Nature's way to exercise herself in small matters, and to bestow the tiniest proofs of great principles. Shameful were it not to draw a lesson from the ways of the tiny creatures, since, as the mind of man has so much more power to do harm, it ought to show the greater self-control. | -- Seneca De Clementia XIX |
| Sani erimus et modica concupiscemus si unusquisque se numeret, metiatur simul corpus, sciat quam nec multum capere nec diu possit. We should be sensible, and our wants more reasonable, if each of us were to take stock of himself, and to measure his bodily needs also, and understand how little he can consume, and for how short a time! | -- Seneca Epistle CXIV. |
| Qui licet prudens sit, licet exacto faciat cuncta iudicio, licet nihil supra vires suas temptet, non continget illi bonum illud integrum et extra minas positum nisi certus adversus incerta est. Though a man be prudent, though he conduct all his interests with well-balanced judgment, though he attempt nothing beyond his strength, he will not attain the Good which is unalloyed and beyond the reach of threats, unless he is sure in dealing with that which is unsure. | -- Seneca. Epistle. XCVIII |
| Malus omnia in malum vertit, etiam quae cum specie optimi venerant: rectus atque integer corrigit prava fortunae et dura atque aspera ferendi scientia mollit, idemque et secunda grate excipit modesteque et adversa constanter ac fortiter. A bad man makes everything bad - even things which had come with the appearance of what is best; but the upright and honest man corrects the wrongs of Fortune, and softens hardship and bitterness because he knows how to endure them; he likewise accepts prosperity with appreciation and moderation, and stands up against trouble with steadiness and courage. | -- Seneca. Epistle. XCVIII |
| Recessit enim ille naturalis modus desideria ope necessaria finiens; iam rusticitatis et miseriae est velle quantum sat est. For that moderation which nature prescribes, which limits our desires by resources restricted to our needs, has abandoned the field; it has now come to this - that to want only what is enough is a sign both of boorishness and of utter destitution. | -- Seneca. Epistle XC |
| Nihil accidere bono uiro mali potest: non miscentur contraria. Quemadmodum tot amnes, tantum superne deiectorum imbrium, tanta medicatorum uis fontium non mutant saporem maris, ne remittunt quidem, ita aduersarum impetus rerum uiri fortis non uertit animum. No evil can befall a good man; opposites do not mingle. Just as the countless rivers, the vast fall of rain from the sky, and the huge volume of mineral springs do not change the taste of the sea, do not even modify it, so the assaults of adversity do not weaken the spirit of a brave man. | -- Seneca. De Providentia II |
| Lusus quoque proderunt; modica enim uoluptas laxat animos et temperat. Games also will be beneficial; for pleasure in moderation relaxes the mind and gives it balance. | -- Seneca. De Ira II.XX.2 |
| Illud tibi praecipio, ne sis miser ante tempus, cum illa quae velut imminentia expavisti fortasse numquam ventura sint, certe non venerint. [5] Quaedam ergo nos magis torquent quam debent, quaedam ante torquent quam debent, quaedam torquent cum omnino non debeant; aut augemus dolorem aut praecipimus aut fingimus. What I advise you to do is, not to be unhappy before the crisis comes; since it may be that the dangers before which you paled as if they were threatening you, will never come upon you; they certainly have not yet come. Accordingly, some things torment us more than they ought; some torment us before they ought; and some torment us when they ought not to torment us at all. We are in the habit of exaggerating, or imagining, or anticipating, sorrow. | -- Seneca. Epistle XIII |
| Aegri animi ista iactatio est: primum argumentum compositae mentis existimo posse consistere et secum morari. The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered mind is a man's ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company. | -- Seneca Letter 2 Moral letters to Lucilius, translated by Richard Mott Gummere |
| Dic in avaritiam, dic in luxuriam; cum profecisse te videriset animos audientium adfeceris, insta vehementius: veri simile non estquantum proficiat talis oratio remedio intenta et tota in bonum audientiumversa. Preach against greed, preach against high living; and when you notice that you have made progress and impressed the minds of your hearers, lay on still harder. You cannot imagine how much progress can be brought about by an address of that nature, when you are bent on curing your hearers and are absolutely devoted to their best interests. | -- Seneca Letter 108 Moral letters to Lucilius, translated by Richard Mott Gummere |
| 'Aliquando et insanire iucundum est' Sometimes it is pleasant to be crazy. | -- Seneca De tranquilitate animi XVII 10 |
| Deinde copia ciborum subtilitas impeditur. Excess food hinders exactness. | -- Seneca Epistulae XV.3 |
| Facilius enim per partes in cognitionem totius adducimur We are more easily led part by part to an understanding of the whole. | -- Seneca Epistulae Morales LXXXIX .
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| Fallaces enim sunt rerum species Appearances are deceiving | -- Seneca De Beneficiis IV.34 |
| entem fata, nolentem trahunt. Destiny carries the willing man; and drags the unwilling. | -- Seneca Epistulae Morales CVII.11 |
| Non refert quam multos sed quam bonos habeas It doesn't matter how many you have, but how good they are | -- Seneca Epistulae Morales XLV.1 |
| Illa vero non est paupertas, si laeta est; non qui parum habet, sed qui plus cupit, pauper est. It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. | -- Seneca Letter 2 Moral letters to Lucilius, translated by Richard Mott Gummere |
| Temperatus sit sapiens et ad res fortius agendas non iram sed uim adhibeat. Let the wise man show moderation and in situations that require strong measures let him supply not anger, but force. | -- Seneca. De Ira II.XVII.2 |
| The sage does not accumulate (for himself). The more that he expends for others, the more does he possess of his own; the more that he gives to others, the more does he have himself. | -- Tao Te Ching, translated by J.Legge |
| Therefore the sage holds in his embrace the one thing (of humility), and manifests it to all the world. He is free from self-display, and therefore he shines; from self-assertion, and therefore he is distinguished; from self-boasting, and therefore his merit is acknowledged; from self-complacency, and therefore he acquires superiority. It is because he is thus free from striving that therefore no one in the world is able to strive with him. | -- Tao Te Ching, translated by J.Legge |
| It is painful for a wise man to say much among fools, nor yet to hold his peace. | -- Theognis. |
| To beget a man is easier than to put into him good wits; none has ever devised means to make the fool wise or the bad man good. | -- Theognis |
| Audentis Fortuna iuuat Fortune favors the bold. | Virgil Aeneid X.284 |
| Men can tell you the number of their sheep, but not the number of their friends, so little value do they assign them. | -- Socrates. Diogenes Laertius. |
| There is only one good: knowledge, and only one evil: ignorance; wealth and good birth bring their possessor no dignity, but on the contrary evil. | -- Socrates. Diogenes Laertius. |
| Sculptors take great pains to turn blocks of marble into men while they let themselves turn into blocks. | -- Socrates. Diogenes Laertius. |
| When Antisthenes, the Cynic, turned his cloak so that the tear was seen: I see your vanity through your cloak. | -- Socrates. Diogenes Laertius. |
| Madness is the opposite of Wisdom. Socrates did not identify Ignorance with Madness, but considered Madness to be not knowing yourself and thinking that you know what you do not. | -- Socrates. Xenophon. Memorabilia.I. |
| All the best that we learn, that which teaches us how to live, is learned by means of words and all other good lessons are also learned by words. The best teachers rely most on the spoken word and those with the deepest knowledge of the greatest subjects are the best talkers. | -- Socrates. Xenophon. Memorabilia.I. |
| The greater the natural gifts, the greater the need of education. | -- Socrates. Xenophon. Memorabilia.I. |
| t is a far sounder plan to show kindness to the best, who are fewer, than to the worst who are the greater company, for the bad want more kindnesses than the good. | -- Socrates. Xenophon. Memorabilia.I. |
| Shouldn’t every man hold self control to be the basis of all virtue and make it the foundation for his soul? | -- Socrates. Xenophon. Memorabilia.I. |
| What is the best pursuit for man? Doing well. To do something well after study and practice I call doing well. He who does nothing well is neither useful in any way nor dear to the gods. | -- Socrates. Xenophon. Memorabilia.I. |
| Never go into any danger contrary to the omens and remember that men choose lines of action by conjecture and do not know in the least which line will lead to success. You may derive this lesson from history, for many men who seemed most wise have ere now persuaded states to take up arms against others and the states thus persuaded to attack have been destroyed. | -- Xenophon. Cyropedia.I. More: Xenophon |
| 5 Never go into any danger contrary to the omens and remember that men choose lines of action by conjecture and do not know in the least which line will lead to success. You may derive this lesson from history, for many men who seemed most wise have ere now persuaded states to take up arms against others and the states thus persuaded to attack have been destroyed. | -- Xenophon. Cyropedia.I. More: Xenophon |
| Skill in speaking, efficiency in affairs and ingenuity were not the qualities that Socrates was eager to foster in his companions. He held that they needed first to acquire prudence and good judgement, for he believed that faculties untempered by prudence increased in their possessors both injustice and power for mischief. | -- Xenophon. Memorabilia.I. |
| All things are good and beautiful relative to those purposes for which they are well adapted and bad and ugly in relation to those for which they are ill adapted. | -- Socrates. Xenophon. Memorabilia.I. |
| All men, whatever their natural gifts, talented and the dullards alike, must learn and practice what they wish to excel in. | -- Socrates. Xenophon. Memorabilia.I. |
| Critobulus, if you want to be thought good at anything, you must try to be so; that is the quickest, the surest, the best way. | -- Socrates. Xenophon. Memorabilia.I. |
| Leisure is the best of possessions. | -- Socrates. Diogenes Laertius. |
| Socrates schooled his body and soul by following a system which by all human calculation would give him a life of confidence and security and would make it easy to meet his expenses. He was so frugal that it is hardly possible to imagine a man doing so little work as not to earn enough to satisfy the needs of Socrates. He ate just sufficient food to make eating a pleasure and he was so ready for his food that he found appetite the best sauce. | -- Xenophon.
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| Just as poetry is forgotten unless it is frequently repeated, so instruction when no longer heeded fades from the mind. | -- Xenophon. Memorabilia.I. |
| Those who cultivate wisdom are able to guide the people and never lapse into violence. | -- Xenophon. Memorabilia.I. |
| [I]f a noble nature be aided by moderate exercise and further receive ungrudging instruction, it easily comes to acquire virtue in perfection. | -- Zeno of Citium. From Diogenes Laertius Lives of Eminent Philosophers. R.D. Hicks, Ed. |
