Wise quotes from the Ancients | The World of English

Wise quotes from the Ancients, the best quotations and aphorisms from the old great Greek, Roman and oriental philosophers and thinkers who formed our culture.

Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.
Aristotle

Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly.
Epictetuts

Self control makes the man. A man without discipline is a boy full of reactions, rather than a man of good actions.
Greek Proverb

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.
Plato

Smart people learn from everything and everyone; average people from their experiences; stupid people already have all the answers!
Socrates

Pleasure in the job, put perfection in the work.
Aristotle

You can beat 40 scholars with one fact, but you can beat one idiot with 40 facts.
Rumi

The palest ink is better than the most retentive memory.
Chinese proverb

You will always have those only riches that you have donated.
Marco Valerio Marziale

The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.
Plato

A multitude of words is no proof of a prudent mind.
Thales

The high-minded man does not bear grudges, for it is not the mark of a great soul to remember injuries, but to forget them.
Aristotle

Think as the wise men think, but talk like the simple people do.
Aristotle

You should not honor men more than the truth.
Plato

Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.
Plato

The truth triumphs by itself, the lie always needs accomplices.
Epictetus

The art of being a slave is to rule one’s master.
Diogenes

The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.
Herodotus

The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.
Plutarch

Every action has its pleasures and its price.
Socrates

The learning and knowledge the we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant.
Plato

If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place.
Lao Tzu

Happiness resides not oin possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul.
Democritus

It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours.
Diogenes

Poverty is the schoolmaster of character.
Antiphanes

Sic lusus animo debent aliquando dari, ad cogitandum melior ut redeat tibi. (Così, di tanto in tanto, devi lasciare svagare la mente, perché torni a te più pronta quando occorre pensare.)
Fedro, Favole, 3, 14.

Stupidity is better kept a secret than displayed.
Heraclitus

The greatest wealth is to be content with little.
Plato

The measurement of a man is what he does with power.
Plato

The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself.
Thales

The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the colour of your thoughts.
Marcus Aurelius

He who has peace of mind disturbs neither himself nor another.
Epicurus

The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.
Plato

The worst pain a man can suffer: to have insight into much and power over nothing.
Herodotus

Mastering others requires force; Mastering the self requires strength.
Lao Tzu

The man enslaved to wealth can never be honest.
Democritus

Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.
Plato

Educate the children and it won’t be necessary to punish the men.
Pythagoras

Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.
Sun Tzu

A fool contributes nothing worth hearing and takes offence at everything.
Aristotle

The measure of a man is what he does with power.
Plato

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.
Socrates

There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage.
Seneca

Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.
Plato

It is not the man who has too little, but ht eman who craves more, that is poor.
Seneca

Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing.
Thales

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.
Seneca

All cruelty spring from weakness.
Seneca

Get busy with life’s purpose, toss aside empty hopes, get active in your own rescue.
Marcus Aurelius

Fishes live in the sea, as men do on land: the great ones eat up the small one.
Pericles

People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.
Epictetus

Disturbance comes only from within, from our own perceptions.
Marcus Aurelius

The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them knows anything about the subject.
Marcus Aurelius

Never depend on the admiration of others. There is no strength in it. Personal merit cannot be derived from an external source.
Epictetus

An honest man is always a child.
Socrates

Open your mind before your mouth.
Aristophanes

Why should we feel anger at the world? As if the world would notice.
Marcus Aurelius

He who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions.
Confucius

When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them.
Confucius

If you wish another to keep your secret, first keep it to yourself.
Seneca the Younger

He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.
Epictetus

The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.
Marcus Aurelius

The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.
Sun Tzu

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.
Epicurus

Knowing yourself is The best fighterthe beginning of all wisdom.
Aristotle

To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man.
Aristotle

As iron is eaten away by rust, so the envious are consumed by their own passion.
Antisthenes

Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.
Aristotle

You can also commit injustice, by doing nothing.
Marcus Aurelius

The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.
Marcus Aurelius

Better than the strength of men and horses is our wisdom.
Xenophanes

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain thought without accepting it.
Aristotle

Wealth is the slave of a wise man. The master of a fool.
Seneca

The challenges you face introduce you to your strengths.
Epictetus

Man is the most intelligent of the animals – and the most silly.
Diogenes

In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons.
Herodotus

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.
Socrates

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
Lao Tzu

The only true wisdom is knowing that you know nothing.
Socrates

It doesn’t matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.
Confucius

Learning is like rowing upstream, not to advance is to drop back.
Chinese Proverb

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.
Plutarch

There is no great genius without some touch of madness.
Aristotle

Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.
Plato

Everything has beauty, but not everyone can see.
Confucius

The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it.
Chinese Proverb

A journey of a thousand leagues begins beneath one’s feet.
Lao Tzu

The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
Chinese Proverbs

Man is the most intelligent of the animals – and the most silly.
Diogenes

Of what use is a philosopher who doesn’t hurt anybody’s feeling?
Diogenes

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.
Alexander the Great

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.
Confucius

Laws are like spider’s webs: If some poor weak creature comes up against them, it is caught; but a big one can break through and get away.
Solon

There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing and be nothing.
Aristotle

Don’t be overheard complaining; not even to yourself.
Marcus Aurelius

Nothing forces us to know what we do not want to know, except pain.
Aeschylus

Educate the children and it won’t be necessary to punish the men.
Pythagoras

Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil.
Plato

Pleasures, when they go beyond a certain limit, are but punishment.
Marcus Aurelius

A friend to all is a friend to none.
Aristotle

Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.
Lao Tzu

Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.
Lao Tzu

A fool is known by his speech, and a wise man by silence.
Pythagoras

The man enslaved to wealth can never be honest.
Democritus

The reward of suffering is experience.
Aeschylus

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.
Aristotle

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.
Marcus Aurelius

It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish.
Aeschylus

Patience is the best remedy for every trouble.
Plautus

A wise man doesn’t say every single thing he thinks, but thinks every single thing he says.
Rumi

A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth.
Aesop

Run from what’s comfortable. Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious. I have tried prudent planning long enough. From now on I’ll be mad.
Rumi

It is better to be silent than to dispute with the ignorant.
Pythagoras

Epigrams succeed where epics fail.
Persian Proverb

The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world.
Plato

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.
Seneca

A great man is hard on himself, a small man is hard on others.
Lao Tzu

Give instructions only to those people who seek knowledge after they have discovered their ignorance.
Confucius

Why should I fear death? If I am, then death is not. If Death is, then I am not. Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?
Epicurus

You can kill a man but you can’t kìll an idea.
Sophocles

Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.
Plutarch

Nothing has more strength than dire necessity.
Euripides

I have been a seeker, and still I am; but I stopped asking the books, and the stars. I started listening the teaching of my soul.
Rumi

Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt.
Juvenal

By desiring little, a poor man makes himself rich.
Democritus

Knowledge, if it does not determine action, is dead to us.
Plotinus

The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.
Epictetus

There is nothing permanent, except change.
Heraclitus

The intelligence consists not only in the knowledge but also in the skill to apply the knowledge into practice.
Aristotle

An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.
Plutarch

In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.
Buddha

A short saying often contains much wisdom.
Sophocles

No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.
Plato

Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his errors.
Marcus Tullio Cicero

First learn the meaning of what you say and then speak.
Epictetus

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.
Plato

To study and not think is a waste. To think and not study is dangerous.
Confucius

Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.
Aeschylus

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.
Rumi

You can also commit injustice by doing nothing.
Marcus Aurelius

The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
Plato

Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.
Socrates

The measure of a man is what he does with power.
Plato

Self-sufficiency is the greatest of all wealth.
Epicurus

From the errors of others, a wise man corrects his own.
Publilius Syrus

Rich people without wisdom and learning are but sheep with golden fleeces.
Solon

Don’t confuse power with leadership. The wise don’t need power to lead.
Tao Te Ching

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.
Seneca

Our life is what our thoughts make it.
Marcus Aurelius

One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.
Euripides

Knowledge is the food of the soul.
Plato

Those who plot the destruction of others often perish in the attempt.
Phaedrus

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

It is not death that a man should fear, but rather he should fear never beginning to live.
Marcus Aurelius

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
Seneca

The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
Marcus Aurelius

To find yourself, think for yourself.
Socrates

Associate with people who are likely to improve you.
Seneca

No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.
Aristotle

One cannot step twice in the same river.
Heraclitus

True wisdom lies in one’s confession about the limits of one’s knowledge.
Socrates

Wisdom outweighs any wealth.
Sophocles

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.
Plato

The universities do not teach all things… So a doctor must seek old wives, gypsies, sorcerers, wandering tribes, old robbers and such outlaws and take lessons from them. A doctor must be a traveller… Knowledge is experience.
Paracelsus

You are a little soul carrying about a corpse, as Epictetus used to say.
Marcus Aurelius

The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.
Epicurus

Be a free thinker and don’t accept everything you hear as truth. Be critical and evaluate what you believe in.
Aristotle

When the student is ready the teacher appears. When the student is truly ready, the teacher disappears.
Lao Tzu

If you allow men to use you for your own purposes, they will use you for theirs.
Aesop

The intelligence consists not only in the knowledge but also in the skill to apply the knowledge into practice.
Aristotle

Day by day, what you think and what you do is who you become.
Heraclitus

No man on earth is truly free, All are slaves of money or necessity. Public opinion or fear of prosecution forces each one, against his conscience, to conform.
Euripides