Ancient Greek Wisdom - The Tools for Life - Plato & Aristotle Quotes

excellence is never an accident it is always the result of high intention sincere effort and intelligent execution it represents the wise choice of many alternatives choice not chance determines your destiny i count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies for the hardest victory is over self the high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it [Music] anybody can become angry this is easy but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose and in the right way this is not within everybody's power and is not easy the self-indulgent man craves for all pleasant things and is led by his appetite to choose these things at the cost of everything else where your talents and the needs of the world cross there lies your vocation happiness is a quality of the soul not a function of one's material circumstances the only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law knowing yourself is the beginning of all [Music] wisdom my best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake learning is an ornament in prosperity a refuge in adversity and a provision in old age [Music] one swallow does not make a summer neither does one fine day similarly one day your brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy to write well express yourself like the common people but think like a wise man first have a definite clear practical ideal a goal an objective second have the necessary means to achieve your ends wisdom money materials and methods third adjust all your means to that end [Music] it is in our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light [Music] man is a goal seeking animal his life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals it is easy to perform a good action but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions democracy arose from men's thinking that if they are equal in any respect they are equal absolutely [Music] character is that which reveals moral purpose exposing the class of things a man chooses or avoids poetry is finer and more philosophical than history for poetry expresses the universal and history only the particular bad people are in conflict with themselves they desire one thing and will another like the incontinent who choose harmful pleasures instead of what they themselves believe to be good [Music] man is by nature a social animal an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human society is something that precedes the individual anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to and therefore does not partake of society is either a beast or a god time crumbles things everything grows old under the power of time and is forgotten through the lapse of [Music] time i have gained this by philosophy i do without being ordered what some are constrained to do by their fear or the law it is not enough to win a war it is more important to organize the peace all who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of [Music] youth wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently he is willing in great crisis to give even his life knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live he is of a disposition to do men's service though he is ashamed to have a service done to him to confer a kindness is the mark of superiority to receive one is a mark of subordination he does not take part in public displays he is open in his dislikes and preferences he talks and acts frankly because of his contempt for men and things he is never fired with admiration since there is nothing great in his eyes he cannot live in complacence with others except it be a friend complacence is the characteristic of a slave he never feels malice and always forgets and passes over injuries he is not fond of talking it is no concern of his that he should be praised or that others should be blamed he does not speak evil of others even of his enemies unless it be to themselves his carriage is sedate his voice deep his speech measured he is not given to hurry for he is concerned about only a few things he is not prone to vehemence for he thinks nothing very important a shrill voice and hasty steps come to a man through care he bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace making the best of his circumstances like a skillful general who marshals his limited forces with the strategy of war he is his own best friend and takes delight in privacy whereas the man of no virtue or ability is his own worst enemy and is afraid of solitude knowledge of the facts differs from knowledge of the reason for the facts man is a tamed or civilized animal nevertheless he requires proper instruction and a fortunate nature and then of all the animals he becomes the most divine and most civilized but if he be insufficiently or ill-educated he becomes the most savage of earthly creatures if men learn this it will implant forgetfulness in their souls they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves but by means of external marks what you have discovered is a recipe not for memory but for reminder and it is no true wisdom that you offer your disciples but only its semblance for by telling them of many things without teaching them you will make them seem to know much while for the most part they know nothing and as men feel not with wisdom but with the conceit of wisdom they will be a burden to their fellows the man who finds that in the course of his life he has done a lot of wrong often wakes up at night in terror like a child with a nightmare and his life is full of foreboding but the man who is conscious of no wrongdoing is filled with cheerfulness and with the comfort of old age knowledge is the food of the song and we must take care my friend that the sophist does not deceive us when he praises what he sells like the dealers wholesale or retail who sell the food of the body for they praise indiscriminately all of their goods without knowing what are really beneficial or hurtful for this feeling of wonder shows that you are a philosopher since wonder is the only beginning of philosophy to be afraid of death is only another form of thinking that one is wise when one is not it is to think that one knows what one does not know no one knows with regard to death whether it is not really the greatest blessing that can happen to man but people dread it as though they were certain it is the greatest evil rhetoric it seems is a producer of persuasion for belief not for instruction in the matter of right and wrong and so the rhetorician's business is not to instruct a law court or public meeting in matters of right and wrong but only to make them believe [Music] then the case is the same in all other arts for the orator and his rhetoric there is no need to know the truth of actual matters but one merely needs to have discovered some divisive persuasion which will make one appear to those who do not know to know better than those who know good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others it would be better for me that multitudes of men should disagree with me rather than that i being one should be out of harmony with myself those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood let alone believed by the masses since those who rule in the city do so because they own a lot i suppose they're unwilling to enact laws to prevent young people who've had no discipline from spending and wasting their wealth so that by making loans to them secured by the young people's property and then calling those loans in they themselves become even richer and more honored good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly while bad people will find a way around the laws people are like dirt they can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die a hero is born among a hundred a wise man is found among a thousand but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men you know that the beginning is the most important part of any work especially in the case of a young and tender thing for that is the time at which character is being formed and the desired impression is more readily taken shall we just carelessly allow children to hear any casual tales which may be devised by casual persons and to receive into their minds ideas for the most part the very opposite of those which we should wish them to have when they are grown up anything received into the mind at that age is likely to become indelible and unalterable and therefore it is most important that the tales which the young first hear should be models of virtuous thoughts [Music] the inexperienced in wisdom and virtue ever occupied with feasting and such are carried downward and there as is fitting they wander their whole life long neither ever looking upward to the truth above them nor rising toward it nor tasting pure and lasting pleasures like cattle always looking downward with their heads bent towards the ground and the banquet tables they feed fatten and fornicate in order to increase their possessions they kick and butt with horns and hooves of steel and kill each other insatiable as they are [Music] excellence is not a gift but a skill that takes practice we do not act rightly because we are excellent in fact we achieve excellence by acting rightly [Music] human behavior flows from three main sources desire emotion and knowledge [Music] that's what education should be i said the art of orientation educators should devise the simplest and most effective methods of turning minds around it shouldn't be the art of implanting sight in the organ but should proceed on the understanding that the organ already has the capacity but it is improperly aligned and isn't facing the right way [Music] the price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men [Music] the society we have described can never grow into reality or see the light of day and there will be no end to the troubles of states or indeed of humanity itself till philosophers become rulers in this world or till those we call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands [Music] never discourage anyone who continually makes progress no matter how slow [Music] the difficulty my friends is not in avoiding death but in avoiding unrighteousness for that runs faster than death [Music] there are two things a person should never be angry at what they can help and what they cannot bodily exercise when compulsory does not harm the body but knowledge when it is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind [Music] [Music] [Music] you

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Length: 19min 38sec (1178 seconds)

Published: Mon May 10 2021