Sarah's Most Worshipful
Greek Philosophers Page

Greetings and welcome to Sarah's Most Worshipful Greek Philosophers Page. Since Sarah could not have a Roman Philosophers page without paying some hommage to the Greeks, here is the Greek Philosophers Page. This page will feature quotes from Sarah's favorite Greek philosophers. This page, however, will not include a great deal on Plato. Plato, like the image of the swan, Sarah believes to be beaten to death. Everyone should have been tortured with enough Plato in college that the pain and anguish of the P man do not need to be replicated here. However, since Plato, after all, did have some good insights, Sarah will reproduce a few of her favorite Plato tidbits. Far from worshipping Plato, Sarah plans to use this page to give some props to lesser known Greek philosophers who she finds to be particularly worshipful, such as Heraclitus and Empedocles. I also would like to include some of my favorite passages from Greek theater, perhaps on a different page, but this will have to wait until I get home and get some of my Greek plays.



Aeschylus

"He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the aweful grace of God."
Agamemmnon 1.177

Anaxagoras

"Things in the one universe are not divided from each other, nor yet are they cut off with an axe, neither hot from cold, nor cold from hot."
Fragment 13

Archilochos

"Let him go ahead.
Ares is a democrat.
There are no privileged people
On a battle field."
Fragment 3

"Attribute to the gods.
They pick a man up,
Stretched on the black loam
And set him on his two feet,
Firm, and then again
Shake solid men until
They fall backward
Into the worst of luck,
Wandering hungry,
Wild of mind."
Fragment 23

"Greet insolence with outrage."
Fragment 71

"Everything,
Perikles,
A man has
Destiny and
Chance
Gave him."
Fragment 86

"Everything
People have
Comes from
Painstaking
Work."
Fragment 87

"Our very meeting with each other is an omen."
Fragment 104

"Give the spear-shy young
Courage
Make then learn
The battle's won
By the gods."
Fragment 283

Empedocles

"More will I tell thee too: there is no birth
Of all things mortal, nor end in ruinous death;
But mingling only and interchange of mixed
There is, and birth is but its name with men."

"For knowledge gained...makes strong thy soul."

"Of night, the lonely, with her sightless eyes." [fragment]

"One vision of two eyes is born." [fragment]

"For know: All things have fixed intent and share of thought."

"All things doth Nature change, enwrapping souls in unfamiliar tunics of the flesh."

"We may not bring It near us with our eyes,
We may not grasp It with our human hands
With neither hands nor eues, those highways twain
Whereby Belief drops into minds of men."

"For they two (Love and Strife) were before and shall be, nor yet, I think, will there ever be an unutterably long time without them both."



Democritus

"I will speak of the whole."



Heraclitus

"Seekers after gold dig up much earth and find little."

"Much learning does not teach understanding."

"It pertains to all men to know themselves and be temperate."

"To be temperate is the greatest virtue. Wisdom consists in speaking and acting the truth, giving heed to the nature of things."

"Eyes are more accurate witnesses than ears."

"Nature loves to hide."

"Unless you expect the unexpected you will never find [truth], for it is hard to discover and hard to attain."

"You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters are continually flowing on."

"It is in changing that things find repose"

"Homer was wrong in saying 'Would that strife might perish from amongst gods and men.' For if that were to occur, then all things would cease to exist."

"You could not discover the limits of the soul, even if you traveled every road to do so; such is the depth of its meaning."

"Human nature has no real understanding; only the divine nature has it."

"Immortals become mortals, mortals become immortals; the live in each other's death and die in each other's life."

"A man's character is his guardian divinity."

"Fire in its advance will judge and overtake all things."

"Thinking is common to all."

"It is weariness to keep toiling at the same things so that one becomes ruled by them."

"To God all things are beautiful, good and right; men, on the other hand, deem some things right and others wrong."

"The way up and the way down are one and the same."

"The hidden harmony is better than the obvious"

"God is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, satiety and want."

"All things come in their due seasons."



Xenophanes

"Homer and Hesiod attributed to the gods all things which are disreputable and worthy of blame when done by men; and they told of them many lawless deeds, stealing, adultery, and deception of each other."
Fragment 7

"No man knows distinctly anything, and no man ever will"
Fragment 34