Delusione
Tanti anni fa credetti in Matteo Renzi. Era il 2011 quando iniziarono a farmelo ascoltare seriamente e mi colpirono tre cose di lui: la lucidità con cui descriveva le gravi mancanze del…
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The Greeks on the Ethical Life
The Greek view of the ethical life is an interesting contrast to that of the Romans.
Epictetus
Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
What matters isn’t what happens, but how you react to what happens.
There is only one way to happiness — cease worrying about the things which are beyond our control.
Circumstances don’t make the man, but only reveal him to himself.
Who is rich? Whoever is content.
Be careful about what images and ideas you let enter your mind.
All of philosophy is contained in these four words: endure and do without.
God has entrusted me to myself.
As you think, so you become.
When misfortune befalls you, ask yourself how you can use it to become a better person.
It is difficulties that show what we are.
Do not seek to have events happen as you want them to happen, but, instead, want them to happen as they do happen, and your life will go well.
Keep company only with those who uplift you — those who call forth your best.
We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.
Do not seek what is good from without, but seek it within yourself, or you will never find it. The trials we endure introduce us to our strengths.
Plato
The greatest wealth is to live content with little.
People can either nourish you and help you grow as a person, or stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.
Be as you wish to appear.
The body is a tomb.
Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.
Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around them.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.
The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself.
No evil can befall a good man, either in life or after death.
No one knows whether death, which people fear as the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.
The unexamined life is not worth living.
Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.
Riches can never make a bad man at peace with himself.
God knows best what is good for us.
We cannot be better than in seeking to become better.
Aristotle
Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.
Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.
To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.
The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend.
Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.
Time crumbles things; everything grows old under the power of Time and is forgotten over the passage of time.
It is the mark of an educated mind to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Man is a goal-seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving toward his goals.
The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.
The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.
Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.
The young are permanently in a state resembling intoxication.
The young have exalted notions because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not one act, but a habit.
The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.
Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.
Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.
Democritus
Happiness does not dwell in herds of cattle or in gold.
By desiring little, a poor man makes himself rich.
One must compare one’s own life with that of those in worse cases, and consider oneself fortunate, reflecting on their sufferings and being so much better off than they.
Virtue consists not in avoiding wrongdoing, but not even wanting to do wrong.
Do not say or do what is base, even when you are alone.
Courage makes misfortunes small.
Epicurus
We must free ourselves from the prison of everyday affairs and politics.
It is useless to ask the gods for what one can obtain for oneself.
It is better to be free of fear and lying on a bed of straw than to own a couch of gold and a lavish table and yet have no peace of mind.
Live your life without attracting attention.
Euripides
Moderation is the noblest gift of heaven.
This is courage in man — to bear unflinchingly what heaven sends.
Happiness is brief.
The designs of heaven are indeed frightening and inscrutable.
Time will show what you are.
Take heart. The gods bring mortals many good outcomes even from desperate situations.
If gods do anything shameful, they are not gods.
How quickly the gods upset the fortunes of the prosperous!
Understand mankind’s condition and do not grieve beyond measure: You are not alone in being visited by misfortune.
You cannot prosper without effort; and it is shameful for a young man to be unwilling to work hard.
Men’s anger from disaster is terrible, and their hearts begin to lose their way.
Do not provoke the gods, but be content with your lot. Desire for the impossible makes many lose what they already have.
Since you are mortal, you must expect also to suffer as mortals do; do you claim the life of a god when you are but human?
A grieving heart is unstable.
Events will take their course; it is not good being angry at them.
Do not consider painful what is good for you.
The good and wise lead quiet lives.
Sophocles
Each one of us must live the life God gives us.
Nothing abides — the starry night, our wealth, our sorrows pass away.
Man is nothing but breath and shadow.
Grief teaches the steadiest mind to waver.
Chance rules our lives, and the future is unknown.
Fate has terrible power. You cannot escape it by wealth or war.
Children are the anchors of a mother’s life.
Aeschylus
Call no man happy until he is dead.
Wisdom comes only through suffering.
Heraclitus
It is not good for men to obtain all that they wish.
A man’s character is his fate.
No one encounters prosperity without also encountering danger.
Silence, healing.
Fate rules all.
Everything changes, and nothing abides.
Good character is not formed in a week or a month. Day by day, what you choose, what you think, and what you do is who you become.
Protagoras
Education does not take root in the soul unless one goes deep.
Man is the measure of all things.
Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing either that they exist or that they don’t exist, nor what sort of form they have. There are many reasons why knowledge on this subject is impossible, owing to lack of knowledge and the shortness of human life.
Xenophanes
Homer and Hesiod have ascribed to the gods all things that are disgraceful among mortals, stealing and adulteries and deceiving one another.
If horses had hands and could paint, they would paint horses as gods.
Diogenes
He has most who is content with least.
The stomach is the Charybdis of life.
Time is the most valuable thing that a man can spend.
Like a shepherd, madness drives the multitude wherever it wants.
Poverty is the unintentional teacher of philosophy because what philosophy tries to instill with words, poverty compels by the power of facts.
The foundation of every state is the education of its children.
Pindar
The present will not long endure.
If any man hopes to do a deed without God’s knowledge, he errs.
Creatures of a day, man is but a shadow’s dream.
Good cheer is the best of healers.
O my soul, do not aspire to immortal life, but seek the limits of the possible
The following Greek aphorisms give you a wider perspective on the Greek worldview.
Epictetus
Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
Man is not bothered by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.
Books are training weights of the mind.
What matters isn’t what happens, but how you react to what happens.
There is only one way to happiness, and that is to cease worrying about the things which are beyond our control.
Anyone capable of angering you becomes your master.
Other people’s views and troubles can be contagious.
Circumstances don’t make the man, but only reveal him to himself.
Seek not the good in external things, but in yourself.
Who is rich? Whoever is content.
Be careful about what images and ideas you let into your mind.
Everyone’s life is a warfare.
It is not possible to be free from faults, but it is to direct your efforts incessantly to being faultless.
Now is the time to get serious about living your ideals. Your nobler self cannot wait any longer.
The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.
All of philosophy is contained in four words: endure and do without.
Whenever you are angry, it is not only a present evil, but you have also strengthened a habit.
God has entrusted me with myself.
What is it to be a philosopher except to be prepared for what happens?
As you think, so you become.
Seek not good from without; seek it from within yourself, or you will never find it.
When misfortune befalls you, ask yourself how you can use it to become a better person.
It is difficulties that show what we are.
Fortify yourself with contentment, for this is an impregnable fortress.
Only the educated are free.
No great thing is created suddenly.
Freedom is not procured by the full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling desire.
Do not seek to have events happen as you want them to happen, but, instead, want them to happen as they do happen, and your life will go well.
Keep company only with those who uplift you — those who call forth your best.
The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.
We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.
No man is free who is not master of himself.
The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful sea captains gain their reputations from storms and tempests.
Don’t seek what is good from without, but seek it within yourself, or you will never find it.
Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own hidden inner resources. The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths.
Plato
The greatest wealth is to live content with little.
No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.
People can either nourish you and help you grow as a person, or stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.
Knowledge is the food of the soul.
Man — a being in search of meaning.
Be as you wish to appear.
Wisdom begins in wonder.
We are what we repeatedly do.
The body is a tomb.
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
Death may be the greatest of all blessings.
Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.
Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around them.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself.
There are three classes of men — lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
Thinking is the soul talking to itself.
Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence.
The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself.
If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.
Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.
No one knows whether death, which people fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.
The unexamined life is not worth living.
When men speak ill of thee, live so as no one may believe them.
Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.
Riches can never make a bad man at peace with himself.
The soul of man is immortal.
It is our duty to choose the best and most dependable theory that human intelligence can supply, and use it as a raft to ride the seas of life.
O dear Pan and all the other gods of this place, grant that I may be beautiful inside. Let all my external possessions be in friendly harmony with what is within.
Money-makers are tiresome company, as they have no standard but cash-value.
If it were necessary either to do wrong or to suffer it, I should choose to suffer rather than do it.
Beware the barrenness of a busy life.
Be as you wish to seem.
God knows best what is good for us.
Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.
I prefer knowledge to wealth, for the one is transitory, the other perpetual.
We cannot be better than in seeking to become better.
Envy is the ulcer of the soul.
To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.
Are you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and caring so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul?
Aristotle
If one way be better than another, you may sure it is nature’s way.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.
Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not by insensibility but greatness of soul.
The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.
The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.
Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.
The young are permanently in a state resembling intoxication.
The young have exalted notions because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not one act, but a habit.
The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.
Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.
Democritus
Happiness does not dwell in herds of cattle or in gold.
By desiring little, a poor man makes himself rich.
One must compare one’s own life with that of those in worse cases, and consider oneself fortunate, reflecting on their sufferings, in being so much better off than they. If you keep to this way of thinking, you will live more serenely.
A life without feasts is a long road without inns.
Virtue consists not in avoiding wrongdoing, but not even wanting to do wrong.
Do not say or do what is base, even when you are alone.
The world is a stage, life is our entrance: you came, you saw, you went away.
Fame and wealth without intelligence are dangerous.
Courage makes misfortunes small.
Epicurus
Poverty is great wealth; limitless wealth, great poverty.
We must free ourselves from the prison of everyday affairs and politics.
It is useless to ask the gods for what one can obtain for oneself.
A life of freedom cannot acquire many possessions.
It is better to be free of fear and lying on a bed of straw than to own a couch of gold and a lavish table and yet have no peace of mind.
If you want to make someone a rich man, do not add to his treasure but take away his desire for more.
Live your life without attracting attention.
You develop courage by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.
Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you don’t have.
If you want to make a man happy, don’t add to his riches, but take away from his desires.
Euripides
Moderation, the noblest gift of heaven.
This is courage in man — to bear unflinchingly what heaven sends.
There is one thing alone that stands the brunt of life — a quiet conscience.
The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life and acknowledge the great powers around and in us.
Happiness is brief.
The good and wise lead quiet lives.
Whoever neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future.
Suffering is inevitable. The man who bears most nobly what fortune the gods give, is wise.
The designs of heaven are indeed frightening and inscrutable.
Time will show what you are.
The best prophet is common sense.
Take heart. The gods bring mortals many good outcomes even from desperate situations.
You have used the easiest excuse — blaming the gods.
If gods do anything shameful, they are not gods.
How quickly the gods upset the fortunes of the prosperous!
Understand mankind’s condition and do not grieve beyond measure: you are not alone in being visited by misfortune.
You cannot prosper without effort; and it is shameful for a young man to be unwilling to work hard.
Nothing in human affairs is independent of the gods.
If you expect to be free of troubles you are a fool, seeing that you are mortal.
To evil men profit is more important than fairness.
Men’s anger from disaster is terrible, and their hearts begin to lose their way.
Do not provoke the gods, but be content with your lot. Desire for the impossible makes many lose what they already have.
Since you are mortal you must expect also to suffer as mortals do. Do you claim the life of a god when you are but human?
A grieving heart is unstable.
Events will take their course; it is not good being angry at them.
Do not consider painful what is good for you.
Slight not what is near in aiming at what is far.
The good and wise lead quiet lives.
Sophocles
Each one of us must live the life God gives us.
Nothing abides — the starry night, our wealth, our sorrows pass away.
A man is nothing but breath and shadow.
Grief teaches the steadiest mind to waver.
One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life — that word is love.
Children are the anchor that holds a mother to life.
Chance rules our lives, and the future is unknown.
No one lives a life free from pain and suffering.
Fate has terrible power. You cannot escape it by wealth or war.
Aeschylus
Call no man happy until he is dead.
It is easy when we are in prosperity to give advice to the afflicted.
Wisdom comes only through suffering.
Words are physicians to a mind diseased.
Pindar
The present will not long endure.
If any man hopes to do a deed without God’s knowledge, he errs.
Creatures of a day, what is man but a shadow’s dream.
The best of healers is good cheer.
Xenophon
Excess of grief for the dead is madness, for it is an injury to the living, and the dead know it not.
Aesop
The smaller the mind, the greater the conceit.
It is easy to be brave from a safe distance.
After all is said and done, more is said than done.
Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.
A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety.
Antisthenes
The fruit of philosophy is the art of getting along with oneself.
May the children of my enemies live in luxury!
Diogenes
He has most who is content with least.
Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.
The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.
The stomach is the Charybdis of life.
Like a shepherd, madness drives the multitude wherever it wants.
Poverty is the unintentional teacher of philosophy because what philosophy tries to instill with words, poverty compels by the power of facts.
Epicharmus
The gods sell all good things for the price of toil.
The body is earth, the mind is fire.
Hippocrates
Walking is a man’s best medicine.
Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease.
Plutarch
The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.
Character is long-standing habit.
The omission of good is no less reprehensible than the commission of evil.
We ought not to treat living creatures like shoes or household belongings, which when worn with use we throw away.
Heraclitus
It is not good for men to obtain all that they wish.
Moderation is the great virtue, and wisdom is to speak the truth and act according to nature.
A man’s character is his fate.
Fate rules all.
All is flux, nothing stays still.
There is nothing permanent except change.
Much learning does not teach understanding.
Protagoras
Education does not take root in the soul unless one goes deep.
Man is the measure of all things.
Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing either that they exist or that they don’t exist, nor what sort of form they have. There are many reasons why knowledge on this subject is impossible, owing to lack of knowledge and the shortness of human life.
Thucydides
History is philosophy teaching by examples.
So little trouble do men take in the search after truth; so readily do they accept whatever comes first to hand.
Xenophanes
Homer and Hesiod have ascribed to the gods all things that are disgraceful among mortals, stealing and adulteries and deceiving one another.
If horses had hands and could paint, they would paint horses as gods.
Frank Breslin is a retired high-school teacher in the New Jersey public school system.
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