50 quotes from ancient Greek philosophers

 50 quotes from ancient Greek philosophers

1. "Know thyself." – Socrates

2. "The unexamined life is not worth living." – Socrates

3. "I know that I know nothing." – Socrates

4. "Happiness depends upon ourselves." – Aristotle

5. "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." – Socrates

6. "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." – Aristotle

7. "Pleasure is the beginning and the end of living happily." – Epicurus

8. "He who is not a good servant will not be a good master." – Plato

9. "Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend." – Theophrastus

10. "Man is the measure of all things." – Protagoras

11. "Nothing in excess." – Delphic maxim

12. "Character is destiny." – Heraclitus

13. "Everything flows and nothing stays." – Heraclitus

14. "War is the father of all and the king of all." – Heraclitus

15. "Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something." – Plato

16. "The greatest wealth is to live content with little." – Plato

17. "Courage is knowing what not to fear." – Plato

18. "Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel." – Socrates (attributed)

19. "Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not." – Epicurus

20. "Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist." – Epicurus

21. "No man ever steps in the same river twice." – Heraclitus

22. "Only the educated are free." – Epictetus

23. "First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do." – Epictetus

24. "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." – Aristotle

25. "To find yourself, think for yourself." – Socrates

26. "He who opens a school door, closes a prison." – (Often attributed to Plato, though more modern)

27. "Nature does nothing in vain." – Aristotle

28. "Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies." – Aristotle

29. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." – (Often misattributed to ancient Greeks; actual origin is modern)

30. "The beginning is the most important part of the work." – Plato

31. "Learning is not child’s play; we cannot learn without pain." – Aristotle

32. "Law is reason free from passion." – Aristotle

33. "A friend to all is a friend to none." – Aristotle

34. "Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly." – Plato

35. "The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts." – Marcus Aurelius (Roman, but Stoic from Greek tradition)

36. "Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth." – Archimedes

37. "Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered." – Aristotle

38. "All men by nature desire to know." – Aristotle

39. "Excess of grief for the dead is madness." – Xenophon

40. "The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger." – Aristotle

41. "Fate leads the willing and drags along the unwilling." – Cleanthes

42. "He who has overcome his fears will truly be free." – Aristotle

43. "Self-control is the chief element in self-respect." – Thucydides

44. "Silence is better than unmeaning words." – Pythagoras

45. "Rest satisfies the soul." – Hesiod

46. "No evil can happen to a good man." – Socrates

47. "A multitude of words is no proof of a prudent mind." – Thales

48. "Hope is the only good that is common to all men." – Thales

49. "The greatest way to live with honor is to be what we pretend to be." – Socrates

50. "I would rather discover one true cause than gain the kingdom of Persia." – Democritus