Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329-390)
“A man’s character is the most persuasive thing of all.”
- From Gregory of Nazianzus’ Three Poems, translated by Denis Molaise Meechan (Catholic University of America Press, 1987).
Gregory of Nazianzus
Dionysus (by Euripides)
Euripides (c. 484-406 BCE)
“Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.”
- From The Bacchae (approximately line 480), by the poet Euripides. Translated by William Arrowsmith (University of Chicago Press, 1959).
Albert Camus
Albert Camus (c. 1913-1960)
“All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning.”
- From The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus, translated by Justin O’Brien (Alfred A. Knopf/Random House/Penguin, 1955,1983).
Odin (from Hamaval)
“Cattle die,
kin die
self dies too;
a good name,
if you get one,
goes on forever”
- This quote comes from stanza 76 of Hávamál (Sayings of the High One), an old poem which was preserved in the 13th-century Poetic Edda which was produced anonymously in Iceland. The translation is by David A. H. Evans (Viking Society for Northern Research, 1986).
Erasmus
Erasmus (c. 1466-1536)
“There are no vices that are more dangerous than those that have the veneer of virtue.”
- “Inner Faith Is Better Than Mere Ritual” from The Handbook of the Militant Christian, reprinted in The Western World: Age of the Protestant Reformation Primary Readings, edited by Mark Kishlansky Et al. Boston: Pearson, 2010.
Sir Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Churchill (c. 1874-1965)
“Never till now were great communities afforded such ample means of measuring their approaching agony. Never have they seemed less capable of taking effective measure to prevent it.”
- From Winston Churchill’s “Stop it now!” (1936), included in Winston S. Churchill Step By Step: Political Writings 1936-1939 (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015).
St. Augustine
St. Augustine of Hippo (c. 354-430)
“Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.”
- From St. Augustine’s Confessions (Book 8, chapter 7, section 17), in Christianity in Late Antiquity, edited by Bart D. Ehrman and Andrew S. Jacobs. New York, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (c. 1483-1546)
“Tomorrow I have to lecture on the drunkenness of Noah [Gen. 9:20-27], so I should drink enough this evening to be able to talk about that wickedness as one who knows by experience.”
- From Martin Luther’s Table Talk (published c. 1566), in A Reformation Reader (Second Edition), edited by Denis R. Janz. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008.
