Confucius (c. 551-479 BCE)
“It is only the very wisest and the very stupidest who cannot change.”
- The Analects of Confucius (Book XVII, section 3) translated by Arthur Waley (Vintage Books, 1989).
Confucius
Anna Komnene
Anna Komnene (1083-1153)
“I will wipe away the tears from my eyes, recover from my grief and continue my story, earning thereby a double share of tears, as the playwright says, for one disaster recalls another.”
- This passage is from Anna Komnene’s Alexiad (Prologue, section 4), translated by E.R.A. Sewter (Penguin Classics, 2009). The book is a history of her father’s reign as emperor of the Byzantine Empire (Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, r. 1081-1118), but she also uses the book to infer that she, and her husband, were unjustly stripped from power after her father’s death. She wrote this book after being restrained to a convent by her brother (she was linked to a failed plot to overthrow him).
Apuleius
Apuleius (125-170)
“Really, I think you are being ignorant and perverse when you account as a lie anything you’ve never heard of or aren’t familiar with the sight of or just find too difficult for your understanding to grasp.”
- From The Golden Ass or Metamorphoses (Book 1) by Apuleius, translated by E. J. Kenney (Penguin Classics Edition, 1998, revised 2004).
Fragments of the Early Stoics
Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta (Fragments of the Early Stoics)
“Everything that is in tune with you, O Universe, is in tune with me. Nothing that is timely for you is too early or too late for me.”
- From the Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta (Fragments of the Early Stoics, iv 23) translated by H. von Arnim, reprinted in Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics by A. A. Long (University of California Press, 1986).
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
“Every lawyer is either a good-for-nothing or a know-nothing. If a lawyer wants to dispute this, tell him, ‘You hear? A lawyer shouldn’t talk until a sow breaks wind!'”
- From Martin Luther’s Table Talk, published by Luther’s friends and students in 1566. Translation in A Reformation Reader: Primary Texts with Introduction, edited by Denis R. Janz (Fortress Press, 2008).
Epicurus
Epicurus (Founder of Epicureanism, lived 341-270 BCE)
“Death is nothing to us; for that which has been dissolved lacks sensation; and that which lacks sensation is no concern to us.”
- From Epicurus’ Principle Doctrines (section ii), translated in Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Skeptics, edited by A. A. Long (University of California Press, 1986).
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius (Roman Emperor, lived 121-180 CE)
“The best kind of revenge is not to become like unto them.”
- From Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, Book VI, (Xist Publishing edition, 2015).
Diogenes Laertius
Diogenes Laertius (3rd Century Biographer of Philosophers)
“The virtue of the happy man and a well-running life consists in this: that all actions are based on the principle of harmony between his own spirit and the will of the director of the universe.”
- From Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of Eminent Philosophers (VII, 88), translated by M. Gigante, in Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Skeptics edited by A. A. Long (University of California Press, 1986).
The Buddha
“Not abusing, not harming,
restraint in line with the discipline,
moderation in eating and seclusion in dwelling,
exertion in meditation as well—
this is the teaching of the awakened.”
- The Dhammapada (Verses on the Way, Chapter 14), recorded in the 3rd century BCE. Translation by Glenn Wallis, 2004.
Socrates
Socrates (469/470-399 BCE)
“Consider this: Is the pious being loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is being loved by the gods?”
- This saying, attributed to Socrates, was recorded in Plato’s Euthyphro (section 10a). The translation used here is by G. M. A. Grube, revised by John M. Cooper (Hackett Publishing, 2000).
