Ancient Philosopher Quotes

Aristotle

Plato

Confucius

Cicero

Socrates

Seneca the Younger

Lao Tzu

Four things belong to a judge: to hear courteously, to answer wisely, to consider soberly, and to decide impartially.

The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself.

Nothing can come into being from that which is not, or pass away into what is not.

In caring for others and serving heaven,
There is nothing like using restraint.

No one punishes the evil-doer under the notion, or for the reason, that he has done wrong -- only the unreasonable fury of a beast acts in that way. But he who desires to inflict rational punishment does not retaliate for a past wrong, for that which is done cannot be undone, but he has regard to the future, and is desirous that the man who is punished, and he who sees him punished, may be deterred from doing wrong again.

While the gentleman cherishes benign rule, the small man cherishes his native land. While the gentleman cherishes a respect for the law, the small man cherishes generous treatment.

He who is not sage and wise, humane and just, cannot use secret agent.s. And he who is not delicate and subtle cannot get the truth out of them.

The physician cannot prescribe by letter... he must feel the pulse.

Seneca the Younger

Necessity is an evil; but there is no necessity for continuing to live subject to necessity.

Make a vessel of wax and put it in the sea, fastening its mouth in such a way as to prevent any water getting in. Then the water that percolates through the wax sides of the vessel is sweet, the earth stuff, the admixture of which makes the water salt, being separated off as it were by a filter.

No one regards things before his feet But views with care the regions of the sky.

The Aegean sea washes Greece on two sides: first, the side that faces towards the east and stretches from Sunium, towards the north as far as the Thermaean Gulf and Thessaloniceia, a Macedonian city...; and secondly, the side that faces towards the south, I mean the Macedonian country, extending from Thessaloniceia as far as the Strymon.

Where there is cinnabar above, yellow gold will be found below. Where there is lodestone above, copper and gold will be found below. Where there is calamine above, lead, tin, and red copper will be found below. Where there is haematite above, iron will be found below. Thus it can be seen that mountains are full of riches.

I pissed on the man who called me a dog. Why was he so surprised?

Diogenes of Sinope

There is no smallest among the small and no largest among the large, But always something still smaller and something still larger.

The river where you set your foot just now is gone-those waters give way to this, now this.

What was always was, and always shall be. For, if it came into being, necessarily, before its generation, there was nothing; so, if there were nothing, nothing at all would come from nothing.

Melissus of Samos

Whoever imposes severe punishment becomes repulsive to the people; while he who awards mild punishment becomes contemptible. But whoever imposes punishment as deserved becomes respectable. For punishment when awarded with due consideration, makes the people devoted to righteousness and to works productive of wealth and enjoyment; while punishment, when ill-awarded under the influence of greed and anger or owing to ignorance, excites fury even among hermits and ascetics dwelling in forests, not to speak of householders.

There cannot be a single, simple body which is infinite, either, as some hold, one distinct from the elements, which they then derive from it, nor without this qualification. For there are some who make this (i. e. a body distinct from the elements) the infinite, and not air or water, in order that the other things may not be destroyed by their infinity. They are in opposition one to another — air is cold, water moist, and fire hot—and therefore, if any one of them were infinite, the rest would have ceased to be by this time. Accordingly they say that what is infinite is something other than the elements, and from it the elements arise.

All things which can be known have number; for it is not possible that without number anything can be either conceived or known.

Willingly would I burn to death like Phaeton, were this the price for reaching the sun and learning its shape, its size, and its substance.

Eudoxus of Cnidus

Therefore we should not try to alter circumstances but to adapt ourselves to them as they really are, just as sailors do. They don't try to change the winds or the sea but ensure that they are always ready to adapt themselves to conditions. In a flat calm they use the oars; with a following breeze they hoist full sail; in a head wind they shorten sail or heave to. Adapt yourself to circumstances in the same way.

Bion of Borysthenes

Not having heard something is not as good as having heard it; having heard it is not as good as having seen it; having seen it is not as good as knowing it; knowing it is not as good as putting it into practice.

Listen, then. I say justice is nothing other than what is advantageous for the stronger.

Every common mechanic has something to say in his craft about good and evil, useful and useless, but these practical considerations never enter into the purview of the mathematician.