Greek

Explore 668 quotes originally in Greek

When the candles are out all women are fair.

Plutarch

Moralia

More information about this quote

Topic

Sex

Author

Plutarch

Source

Moralia

Medium

Essay

Language

Greek

Time

100 100s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Plutarch. "Γαμικὰ παραγγέλματα [Advice to Bride and Groom]." Ἠθικά Ethika [The Moralia]. c. 100 AD.

Current Citation

Plutarch. "Advice to Bride and Groom." Moralia, translated by Frank Cole Babbitt. Vol. 2, Harvard University Press, 1928.

But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.

Jesus

Matthew 19:30

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Topic

Pride vs. humility Pride Humility

Speaker

Jesus

Source

Gospel of Matthew The Bible

Medium

Scripture

Genre

Religious literature

Statement Type

Paradox

Language

Greek

Time

60 60s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Holy Bible: The King James Version. 1611. (Matthew 19:30).

Those who aim at great deeds must also suffer greatly.

Marcus Licinus Crassus

Quoted in Plutarch's Lives, by Plutarch

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Topic

Price of greatness Greatness

Speaker

Marcus Licinus Crassus

Author

Plutarch

Source

Plutarch's Lives

Genre

Historical literature

Language

Greek

Time

119 110s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Crassus. Quoted in "Crassus." Parallel Lives by Plutarch. c. 2nd century BC, ch. 26.

Current Citation

Crassus. Quoted in "Crassus." Parallel Lives by Plutarch. Oxford University Press, 2009, ch. 26.

For he does not wish to appear the bravest, but to be the bravest.

Aeschylus

Seven Against Thebes

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Topic

Appearance vs. reality Character Virtue

Speaker

Scout

Author

Aeschylus

Source

Seven Against Thebes

Medium

Play

Genre

Greek tragedy Tragedy (play)

Language

Greek

Time

467 BC 460s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Aeschylus. Ἑπτὰ ἐπὶ Θήβας [Seven Against Thebes]. c. 467 BC, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Aeschylus. "Seven Against Thebes." The Persians and Other Plays, edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein. Penguin Classics, 2010.

The good of man is the active exercise of his soul's faculties in conformity with excellence or virtue... Moreover this activity must occupy a complete lifetime; for one swallow does not make spring, nor does one fine day; and similarly one day or a brief period of happiness does not make a man supremely blessed and happy.

Aristotle

The Nicomachean Ethics

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Topic

Purpose of life Incremental improvement Self-improvement Personal growth

Author

Aristotle

Source

The Nicomachean Ethics

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

322 BC 320s BC 4th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Aristotle. Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια, Ēthika Nikomacheia [Nicomachean Ethics]. c. 322 BC.

Current Citation

Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics, translated by Terence Irwin. Hackett Publishing, 2019, bk. 1.

Nowhere can a man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Topic

Inner life Inner peace Solitude

Author

Marcus Aurelius

Source

Meditations

Medium

Personal journal

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

180 180s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. c. 180, bk. 4.

Current Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, edited and translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics, 2015, bk. 4.

’Tis very dishonourable in life, that the soul should fail and desert its duty; while the body can hold out, and sustain its part.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Topic

Giving up Body and soul The soul

Author

Marcus Aurelius

Source

Meditations

Medium

Personal journal

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

180 180s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. c. 180, bk. 6.

Current Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, edited and translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics, 2015, bk. 6.

My child, you are still young, and time as it advances [888b] will cause you to reverse many of the opinions you now hold: so wait till then before pronouncing judgment on matters of most grave importance; and of these the gravest of all—though at present you regard it as naught—is the question of holding a right view about the gods and so living well, or the opposite.

Plato

Laws

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Topic

Belief in God How to live

Author

Plato

Source

Laws

Medium

Philosophical dialogue Dialogue

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

346 BC 340s BC 4th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Plato. Νόμοι [Laws]. c. 346 BC, bk. 10.

Current Citation

Plato. Laws, translated by Tom Griffith, edited by Malcolm Schofield. Cambridge University Press, 2016, bk. 10.

As for life, it is a battle and a sojourning in a strange land; but the fame that comes after is oblivion.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Topic

The human condition

Author

Marcus Aurelius

Source

Meditations

Medium

Personal journal

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

180 180s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. c. 180, bk. 2.

Current Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, edited and translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics, 2015, bk. 2.

Mere cleverness is not wisdom.

Euripides

Bacchae

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Topic

Wisdom Cleverness

Speaker

Chorus

Author

Euripides

Source

Bacchae

Medium

Play

Genre

Tragedy (play)

Language

Greek

Time

405 BC 400s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Euripides. The Bacchae. 405 BC, l. 395.

Current Citation

Euripides. "The Baccae." Euripedes V: Bacchae, Iphigenia in Aulis, The Cyclops, Rhesus, translated by Richard Lattimore, et. al. University of Chicago Press, 2013, l. 395.

Neither by nature, then, nor contrary to nature do the virtues arise in us; rather we are adapted by nature to receive them, and are made perfect by habit.

Aristotle

The Nicomachean Ethics

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Topic

Habits Virtue Self-improvement Personal growth Human nature

Author

Aristotle

Source

The Nicomachean Ethics

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

322 BC 320s BC 4th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Aristotle. Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια, Ēthika Nikomacheia [Nicomachean Ethics]. c. 322 BC.

Current Citation

Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics, translated by Terence Irwin. Hackett Publishing, 2019, bk. 2.

Either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another. Now if death be of such a nature, I say that to die is to gain; for eternity is then only a single night.

Socrates

Quoted in Apology, by Plato

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Topic

The unknown Death The afterlife

Speaker

Socrates

Author

Plato

Source

Apology

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

339 BC 330s BC 4th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Plato. Ἀπολογία Σωκράτους [Apology of Socrates]. Speech of legal self-defence which Socrates spoke at his trial for impiety and corruption. 399 BC, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Plato. "Apology." Plato: Euthyphro; Apology; Crito; Phaedo, translated by Christopher Emlyn-Jones and William Preddy. Harvard University Press, 2017.

The longest-lived and the shortest-lived man, when they come to die, lose one and the same things.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Topic

Death as equalizer Length of life

Author

Marcus Aurelius

Source

Meditations

Medium

Personal journal

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

180 180s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. c. 180, bk. 2.

Current Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, edited and translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics, 2015, bk. 2.

It is circumstance and proper timing that give an action its character and make it either good or bad.

Plutarch

Plutarch's Lives

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More information about this quote

Topic

Moral theory Timing

Author

Plutarch

Source

Plutarch's Lives

Genre

Historical literature

Language

Greek

Time

119 110s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Plutarch. "Agesilaus." Βίοι Παράλληλοι [Parallel Lives]. c. 2nd century.

Current Citation

Plutarch. "Agesilaus." Roman Lives: A Selection of Eight Roman Lives, translated by Robin Waterfield. Oxford University Press, 2009.

How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Topic

Comparing oneself to others

Author

Marcus Aurelius

Source

Meditations

Medium

Personal journal

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

180 180s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. c. 180, bk. 4.

Current Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, edited and translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics, 2015, bk. 4.

My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death.

Jesus

Matthew 26:38

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More information about this quote

Topic

Sadness

Speaker

Jesus

Source

Gospel of Matthew The Bible

Medium

Scripture

Genre

Religious literature

Language

Greek

Time

60 60s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Holy Bible: The King James Version. 1611. (Matthew 26:38).

In truth we know nothing, for truth lies in the depth.

Democritus

Quoted in The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, by Diogenes Laërtius

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Topic

Nature of truth Truth Knowledge Epistemology

Speaker

Democritus

Author

Diogenes Laërtius

Source

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

Genre

Historical literature

Language

Greek

Time

400 400s 3rd century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Pyrrho. Quoted in Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, written by Diogenes Laertius. c. 240 AD, bk. 9, ch. 11, sect. 72.

Current Citation

Pyrrho. Quoted in The Lives of Eminent Philosophers, written by Diogenes Laërtius, translated by Pamela Mensch, edited by James Miller. Oxford University Press, 2018, bk 9, ch. 11, sect. 72.

Time is a violent torrent; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

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Topic

Relentlessness of time Time Circle of life

Author

Marcus Aurelius

Source

Meditations

Medium

Personal journal

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

180 180s 2nd century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. c. 180, bk. 4.

Current Citation

Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations, edited and translated by Martin Hammond. Penguin Classics, 2015, bk. 4.

For God hates utterly
The bray of bragging tongues.

Sophocles

Antigone

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Topic

Bragging and boasting

Speaker

Chorus

Author

Sophocles

Source

Antigone

Medium

Play

Genre

Greek tragedy Tragedy (play)

Language

Greek

Time

442 BC 440s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Sophocles. Ἀντιγόνη [Antigone]. c. 441 BC, Festival of Dionysus, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Sophocles. "Antigone." The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone, translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. Mariner Books, 2002.

For if liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.

Aristotle

Politics

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Topic

Freedom Equality Democracy

Author

Aristotle

Source

Politics

Genre

Political literature Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

350 BC 350s BC 4th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Aristotle. Politics. 4th century BC, bk. 4.

Current Citation

Aristotle. Politics, translated by R. F. Stalley and Sir Ernest Barker. Oxford University Press, 2009, bk. 4.