When Thales was asked what was difficult, he said, To know one's self. And what was easy, To advise another.Collection: Self
Diogenes lighted a candle in the daytime, and went round saying, "I am looking for a man.Collection: Men
Socrates said, "Those who want fewest things are nearest to the gods.Collection: Want
Time is the image of eternity.Collection: Time
Ignorance plays the chief part among men, and the multitude of words.Collection: Ignorance
Fortune is unstable, while our will is free.Collection: Fortune
That man does not possess his estate, but his estate possesses him.Collection: Men
He used to say that it was better to have one friend of great value than many friends who were good for nothing.Collection: Greatest Love
Courage, my boy! that is the complexion of virtue.Collection: Boys
Bury me on my face," said Diogenes; and when he was asked why, he replied, "Because in a little while everything will be turned upside down.Collection: Lying
Antisthenes used to say that envious people were devoured by their own disposition, just as iron is by rust.Collection: Iron
The sun too penetrates into privies, but is not polluted by them.Collection: Sun
A man once asked Diogenes what was the proper time for supper, and he made answer, "If you are a rich man, whenever you please; and if you are a poor man, whenever you can.Collection: Men
Aristippus said that a wise man's country was the world.Collection: Wise
Anaxagoras said to a man who was grieving because he was dying in a foreign land, "The descent to Hades is the same from every place.Collection: Men
There is a written and an unwritten law. The one by which we regulate our constitutions in our cities is the written law; that which arises from customs is the unwritten law.Collection: Law
Sacrifice to the Graces.Collection: Sacrifice
Diogenes, when asked from what country he came, replied, "I am a citizen of the world."Collection: Country
As some say, Solon was the author of the apophthegm, "Nothing in excess.Collection: Excess
Whichever you do, you will repent it.Collection: Repent
Bias used to say that men ought to calculate life both as if they were fated to live a long and a short time, and that they ought to love one another as if at a future time they would come to hate one another; for that most men were bad.Collection: Hate
Apollodorus says, "If any one were to take away from the books of Chrysippus all the passages which he quotes from other authors, his paper would be left empty.Collection: Book
Bion used to say that the way to the shades below was easy; he could go there with his eyes shut.Collection: Eye
Heraclitus says that Pittacus, when he had got Alcæus into his power, released him, saying, "Forgiveness is better than revenge.Collection: Revenge
One of the sayings of Diogenes was that most men were within a finger's breadth of being mad; for if a man walked with his middle finger pointing out, folks would think him mad, but not so if it were his forefinger.Collection: Thinking
One of the sophisms of Chrysippus was, "If you have not lost a thing, you have it.Collection: Lost
It used to be a common saying of Myson's that men ought not to seek for things in words, but for words in things; for that things are not made on account of words but that words are put together for the sake of things.Collection: Men
Aristippus being asked what were the most necessary things for well-born boys to learn, said, "Those things which they will put in practice when they become men.Collection: Boys
Plato was continually saying to Xenocrates, "Sacrifice to the Graces.Collection: Plato
Thales said there was no difference between life and death. Why, then, said some one to him, do not you die? Because, said he, it does make no difference.Collection: Differences
Diogenes said once to a person who was showing him a dial, "It is a very useful thing to save a man from being too late for supper.Collection: Men
Plato affirmed that the soul was immortal and clothed in many bodies successively.Collection: Plato
Pythagoras used to say that he had received as a gift from Mercury the perpetual transmigration of his soul, so that it was constantly transmigrating and passing into all sorts of plants or animals.Collection: Animal
There are many marvellous stories told of Pherecydes. For it is said that he was walking along the seashore at Samos, and that seeing a ship sailing by with a fair wind, he said that it would soon sink; and presently it sank before his eyes. At another time he was drinking some water which had been drawn up out of a well, and he foretold that within three days there would be an earthquake; and there was one.Collection: Drinking
If appearances are deceitful, then they do not deserve any confidence when they assert what appears to them to be true.Collection: Appearance
Once when Bion was at sea in the company of some wicked men, he fell into the hands of pirates; and when the rest said, "We are undone if we are known,"-"But I," said he, "am undone if we are not known.Collection: Men
Euripides says,-Who knows but that this life is really death,And whether death is not what men call life?Collection: Men
Pittacus said that half was more than the whole.Collection: Half
When asked what learning was the most necessary, he said, Not to unlearn what you have learned!Collection: Education
The Stoics also teach that God is unity, and that he is called Mind and Fate and Jupiter, and by many other names besides.Collection: Fate
But Chrysippus, Posidonius, Zeno, and Boëthus say, that all things are produced by fate. And fate is a connected cause of existing things, or the reason according to which the world is regulated.Collection: Fate
Anarcharsis, on learning that the sides of a ship were four fingers thick, said that "the passengers were just that distance from death.Collection: Distance
The mountains too, at a distance, appear airy masses and smooth, but seen near at hand they are rough.Collection: Distance
Xenophanes speaks thus:-And no man knows distinctly anything,And no man ever will.Collection: Men
Anaximander used to assert that the primary cause of all things was the Infinite,-not defining exactly whether he meant air or water or anything else.Collection: Air
Arcesilaus had a peculiar habit while conversing of using the expression, "My opinion is," and "So and so will not agree to this.Collection: Expression
Diogenes would frequently praise those who were about to marry, and yet did not marry.Collection: Praise