Browsing Topic Best Greek Quotes

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.

It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.

One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.

The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

There is nothing permanent except change.

I envy those old Greek bathers, into whose hands were delivered Pericles, and Alcibiades, and the perfect models of Phidias. They had daily before their eyes the highest types of Beauty which the world has ever produced; for of all things that are beautiful, the human body is the crown.

Greek is the embodiment of the fluent speech that runs or soars, the speech of a people which could not help giving winged feet toits god of art. Latin is the embodiment of the weighty and concentrated speech which is hammered and pressed and polished into the shape of its perfection, as the ethically minded Romans believed that the soul also should be wrought.

To test a perfect theory with imperfect instruments did not impress the Greek philosophers as a valid way to gain knowledge.

The fool’s life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly toward the future.

For the sake of historical truth I must verify that only the Greeks, of all the adversaries who confronted us, fought with bold courage and highest disregard of death.

Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.

She is an excellent creature, but she can never remember which came first, the Greeks or the Romans.

I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.

I want to thank the Greek people publicly for their humanitarian response to the crisis of so many migrants and refugees seeking safety in Europe. Greeks, especially on the islands, have shown extraordinary compassion and they’ve rightly earned the admiration of the world.

Development of Western science is based on two great achievements: the invention of the formal logical system (in Euclidean geometry) by the Greek philosophers, and the discovery of the possibility to find out causal relationships by systematic experiment (during the Renaissance). In my opinion, one has not to be astonished that the Chinese sages have not made these steps. The astonishing thing is that these discoveries were made at all.

The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.

Aristotle is the last Greek philosopher who faces the world cheerfully; after him, all have, in one form or another, a philosophy of retreat.

Not only were the Jews expecting the birth of a Great King, a Wise Man and a Saviour, but Plato and Socrates also spoke of the Logos and of the Universal Wise Man ‘yet to come’. Confucius spoke of ‘the Saint’; the Sibyls, of a ‘Universal King’; the Greek dramatist, of a saviour and redeemer to unloose man from the ‘primal eldest curse’. All these were on the Gentile side of the expectation. What separates Christ from all men is that first He was expected; even the Gentiles had a longing for a deliverer, or redeemer. This fact alone distinguishes Him from all other religious leaders.

I am what libraries and librarians have made me, with little assistance from a professor of Greek and poets

I have never come across someone who could inspire more respect than the Greek philosophers.

Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.

The greater the Difficulty the more Glory in surmounting it, and the loss of false Joys secures to us a much better Possession of real ones.

I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words. When I was a boy, we were taught to be discrete and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise and impatient of restraint.

I didn’t have a big fat Greek wedding, but I have a lot of fat Greek friends.

I’m Greek. My body produces feta cheese.

We talked about politics constantly in my family growing up in North Carolina. There were always debates. Being of Greek background, it’s in our blood to drink coffee and talk politics.

All the Greek mythic heroes had gone east, but they were myths. Achilles was a myth. Perseus, Theseus, Hercules… they probably existed in some form. But they all went east. That’s where a Greek went to make his bones so to speak. And Alexander the Great was the first man who actually went east not to plunder, not to loot and come back to Greece – which is where the Macedonians wanted to go back with the money. He stayed. And he became half-Eastern.

I guess you could say Alexander the Great was a man who completely transported me and moved me and inspired me because of his idealism, and I’d go back to the Greeks, and I always liked Homer and all the philosophers and their way of thinking and their concept of honor. I think their concept of honor does apply to the modern age, and certain people that walk around are pre-Christian.

I was nurtured on Greek Mythology and the classical epics. I lived and breathed Homer. Other mythologies – the Russian, the Norse, the Persian, the Indian, Egyptian, etc. – all came later. First and foremost were the Greeks, and they were all living in my head as though I were Zeus and they were a clamoring Chorus of Athenas.

The oldest theory of art belongs to the Greeks, who regarded art as an imitation (mimesis) of reality. The strength of that theory is that it explains the way in which art takes its materials from real life.

The word ‘silly’ derives from the Greek ‘selig’ meaning ‘blessed.’ There is something sacred in being able to be silly.

All the superhero stuff is Greek myths and Greek gods, wearing tights and capes. That’s what they are. That’s what I gravitate towards.

Greek architecture taught me that the column is where the light is not, and the space between is where the light is. It is a matter of no-light, light, no-light, light. A column and a column brings light between them. To make a column which grows out of the wall and which makes its own rhythm of no-light, light, no-light, light: that is the marvel of the artist.

The Greeks bequeathed to us one of the most beautiful words in our language–the word ‘enthusiasm’–en theos–a god within. The grandeur of human actions is measured by the inspiration from which they spring. Happy is he who bears a god within, and who obeys it.

Before God, there is neither Greek nor barbarian, neither rich nor poor, and the slave is as good as his master, for by birth all men are free; they are citizens of the universal commonwealth which embraces all the world, brethren of one family, and children of God.