Plato (c. 427-347 BCE)
“If someone is self-disciplined and good-tempered, old age isn’t too much of a burden; otherwise, it’s not just a question of old age, Socrates – such a person will find life difficult when he’s young as well.”
Egil Skallagrimsson (10th century Viking-age poet)
“Blind, I must bear
this eye ailment,
blunder to the fire, beg
mercy from a maidservant;
formerly a fierce king
warmed to my words;
the noble lords of lands
gave me gold as reward.”
Lucian of Samosata (2nd century CE Satirist)
“The noblest of philosophies for sale, the most distinguished; who’ll buy? Who wants to be more than man? Who wants to apprehend the music of the spheres and to be born again?”
Spoken by Demeter (a Greek goddess) in the hymn:
“Humans are short-sighted, stupid, ignorant of the share of good or evil which is coming to them.”
Marcus Aurelius (121-180)
Roman Emperor
“Think thyself fit and worthy to speak, or do anything that is according to nature, and let not the reproach, or report of some that may ensue upon it, ever deter thee.”
Porphyry (lived approximately c. 234-305)
“What I am about to say may seem surprising to some, namely that the gods have proclaimed Christ to be most pious and immortal, and that they remember him in a laudatory way.”
Diogenes Laertius (3rd Century biographer of philosophers)
“No part of philosophy is separate from another part; they all combine as a mixture.”
Epicurus (341-270 BCE)
From Principal Doctrines (Kuriai doxai)
“Of all the things which wisdom secures for the attainment of happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the greatest is the possession of friendship.”
Heraclitus (6th and 5th Century BCE)
“One thing is wisdom: to be skilled in the plan upon which all things are controlled throughout the universe.”
