Quotes
Quotes about Men
It was a common saying of Myson that men ought not to investigate things from words, but words from things; for that things are not made for the sake of words, but words for things.
Epimenides was sent by his father into the field to look for a sheep, turned out of the road at mid-day and lay down in a certain cave and fell asleep, and slept there fifty-seven years; and after that, when awake, he went on looking for the sheep, thinking that he had been taking a short nap.
He used to say that other men lived to eat, but that he ate to live.
Aristippus being asked what were the most necessary things for well-born boys to learn, said, "Those things which they will put in practice when they become men."
That the gods superintend all the affairs of men, and that there are such beings as dæmons.
Once when Bion was at sea in the company of some wicked men, he fell into the hands of pirates; and when the rest said, "We are undone if we are known,"--"But I," said he, "am undone if we are not known."
On one occasion Aristotle was asked how much educated men were superior to those uneducated: "As much," said he, "as the living are to the dead."
It was a saying of his that education was an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
When he was praised by some wicked men, he said, "I am sadly afraid that I must have done some wicked thing."
One of the sayings of Diogenes was that most men were within a finger's breadth of being mad; for if a man walked with his middle finger pointing out, folks would think him mad, but not so if it were his forefinger.
Euripides says,--
Who knows but that this life is really death,
And whether death is not what men call life?
The chief good is the suspension of the judgment, which tranquillity of mind follows like its shadow.
It was a saying of Demetrius Phalereus, that "Men having often abandoned what was visible for the sake of what was uncertain, have not got what they expected, and have lost what they had,--being unfortunate by an enigmatical sort of calamity."
The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light,--although it passes among the impure, it is not polluted.
A Moment's Halt--a momentary taste
Of BEING from the Well amid the Waste--
And, Lo! the phantom Caravan has reach'd
The NOTHING it set out from. Oh, make haste!
Here I stand; I can do no otherwise. God help me. Amen!
He who should teach men to die would at the same time teach them to live.
How many worthy men have we seen survive their own reputation!
The public weal requires that men should betray and lie and massacre.
Few men have been admired by their own domestics.
Not because Socrates said so,... I look upon all men as my compatriots.
Men are most apt to believe what they least understand.
There is more ado to interpret interpretations than to interpret the things, and more books upon books than upon all other subjects; we do nothing but comment upon one another.
The diversity of physical arguments and opinions embraces all sorts of methods.
For where's the state beneath the firmament
That doth excel the bees for government?
