Browsing Quotes With Tag: western-world (36)
-
It is hardly believable how much can be achieved by this sort of speech, aimed at curing people, wholly directed to the good of the people listening. When the character is impressionable it is easily won over to a passion for what is noble and honourable; while a person’s character is still malleable, and only corrupted to a mild degree, truth strikes deep if she finds the right kind of advocate.
Speaker: SenecaPosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 7:48 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
A person who goes to a philosopher should carry away with him something or other of value every day; he should return home a sounder man or at least more capable of becoming one. And he will: for the power of philosophy is such that she helps not only those who devote themselves to her but also those who come into contact with her.
Speaker: SenecaPosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 7:47 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
I have no respect for any study whatsoever if its end is the making of money. Such studies are to me unworthy ones. They involve the putting out of skills to hire, and are only of value in so far as they may develop the mind without occupying it for long. Time should be spent on them only so long as one’s mental abilities are not up to dealing with higher things. They are our apprenticeship, not our real work.
Why ‘liberal studies’ are so called is obvious: it is because they are the ones considered worthy of a free man.Speaker: SenecaPosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 7:46 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
Does it make you see how much easier it can be to conquer a whole people than to conquer a single man?
Speaker: SenecaPosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 7:44 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
The wise man, nevertheless, unequaled though he is in his devotion to his friends, though regarding them as being no less important and frequently more important than his own self, will still consider what is valuable in life to be something wholly confined to his inner self.
Speaker: SenecaPosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 7:43 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
Self-contented as [the philosopher] is, then, he does need friends – and wants as many of them as possible – but not to enable him to lead a happy life; this he will have even without friends.
Speaker: SenecaPosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 7:41 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
The wise man…lacked nothing but needed a great number of things, whereas ‘the fool, on the other hand, needs nothing (for he does not know how to use anything) but lacks everything.’
Speaker: SenecaPosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 7:40 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
There can be no doubt that the desire lovers have for each other is not so very different from friendship – you might say it was friendship gone mad.
Speaker: SenecaPosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 7:39 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
What is my object in making a friend? To have someone to be able to die for, someone I may follow into exile, someone for whose life I may put myself up as security and pay the price as well.
Speaker: SenecaPosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 7:38 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
Anyone thinking of his own interests and seeking out friendship with this in view is making a great mistake.
Speaker: SenecaPosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 7:35 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
‘I shall show you,’ said Hecato, ‘a love philter compounded without drug or herb or witch’s spell. It is this: if you wish to be loved, love.’
Speaker: SenecaPosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 7:35 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
If you pray a thing may
And it does come your way,
‘Tis a long way from being your own.Speaker: SenecaPosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 7:33 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
Reflect that nothing merits admiration except the spirit, the impressiveness of which prevents it from being impressed by anything.
Speaker: SenecaPosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 7:29 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
To win true freedom you must be a slave to philosophy.
Speaker: SenecaPosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 7:27 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
Lay these up in your heart, my dear Lucilius, that you may scorn the pleasure that comes from the majority’s approval.
Speaker: SenecaPosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 7:27 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
‘To me’, says Democritus, ‘a single man is a crowd, and a crowd is a single man.’
Speaker: SenecaPosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 7:25 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
When a mind is impressionable and has none too firm a hold on what is right, it must be rescued from the crowd; it is so easy for it to go over to the majority.
Speaker: SenecaPosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 7:24 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
Through the agency of these the god draws the souls of men wherever he wishes, by hitching one man to the power of another.
Speaker: PlatoPosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 6:59 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
What we need is that the only men to get power should be men who do not love it, otherwise we shall have rivals’ quarrels.
Speaker: PlatoPosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 6:56 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment! -
The truth is that if you want a well-governed state to be possible, you must find for your future rulers some way of life they like better than government.
Speaker: PlatoPosted: 19 Aug 2008 at 6:54 PMComments: None... Be the first to comment!