Greek Quotes - Page 18

• The ancient Greek "oral poets" all had this anxiety about the deficiencies of their memories and always began poems by praying to the muse to help them remember.

  David Antin

  Memories, Anxiety, Helping

  "A Conversation with David Antin". Book by David Antin, Charles Bernstein, 2002.

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• This was nostalgia in the literal Greek sense: the pain of not being able to return to one's home and family.

  John Thorn

  Pain, Home, Able

  8 Copy quote

• The Scythians take kannabis seed, creep in under the felts, and throw it on the red-hot stones. It smolders and sends up such billows of steam-smoke that no Greek vapor bath can surpass it. The Scythians howl with joy in these vapor-baths, which serve them instead of bathing, for they never wash their bodies with water.

  Herodotus

  Water, Joy, Vapor

  "The Histories". Book by Herodotus, c. 440 BC.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• In all the twelve years I was at school no one ever succeeded in making me write a Latin verse or learn any Greek except the alphabet.

  Winston Churchill

  Education, Latin, Writing

  Winston Churchill (2010). “My Early Life: 1874-1904”, p.32, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The original Greek word "idiotes" referred to people who might have had a high IQ, but were so self-involved that they focused exclusively on their own life and were both ignorant of and uncaring about public concerns and the common good.

  Jim Hightower

  Self, People, Ignorant

  6 Copy quote

• Adrienne Mayor's inquiry into the myth--and surprising reality--of Amazon women begins with the fierce Greek huntress Atalanta, but takes us deep into the past and as far afield as the Great Wall of China. With the restless curiosity and meticulous scholarship that have become her hallmark, the author once again has found a gap in my bookshelf and filled it, admirably.

  Steven Saylor

  Wall, Past, Reality

  5 Copy quote

• The word crisis- is from the Greek, meaning a moment to decide.- The recurrent moments of crisis and decision when understood, are growth junctures, points of initiation which mark a release from one state of being and a growth into the next.

  Jill Purce

  Decision, Growth, Next

  9 Copy quote

• If we want happiness, I think we should follow classic Greek wisdom and live with areté. The word directly translates as 'excellence' or 'virtue,' but has a deeper meaning — something closer to 'expressing the highest version of ourselves.' When we're showing up fully moment to moment, there's no room for regret/anxiety/disillusionment, just a whole lot of happiness. Here's to getting our areté on!

  Brian Johnson

  Regret, Thinking, Meaning Something

  19 Copy quote

• The purpose of seasonal festivals is periodically to revive the topocosm. Gaster coined this word from the Greek - topo for place and cosmos for world order. Topocosm means "the world order of a particular place." The topocosm is the entire complex of any given locality conceived as a living organism, not just the human community but the total community - the plants, animals and soils of the place. The topocosm is not only the actual and present living community but also that continuous entity of which the present community is but the current manifestation.

  Dolores LaChapelle

  Life, Mean, Animal

  19 Copy quote

• Sandoz turned and accepted the book, looking at the spine. "Aeschylus?"
  Wordlessly, Guiuliani pointed out the passage, and Emilio studied it a while, slowly translating the Greek in his mind. Finally, he said, "In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, againstour will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

  Mary Doria Russell

  Pain, Book, Fall

  "The Sparrow". Book by Mary Doria Russell, February 23, 2010.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• If a seperate personal Paradise exists for each of us mine must irreparably be planted with trees of words which the wind silvers like poplars, by people who see their confiscated justice given back, and by birds that even in the midst of the truth of death insist on singing in Greek and saying, eros, eros, eros.

  Odysseas Elytis

  Love, Wind, People

  37 Copy quote

• What is the foundation of that interest all men feel in Greek history, letters, art, and poetry, in all its periods, from the Heroic or Homeric age down to the domestic life of the Athenians and Spartans, four or five centuries later? What but this, that every man passes personally through a Grecian period.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Art, Men, Age

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.150, Harvard University Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't buy into any of that hogwash. They put that out to sell tickets. It's just a classic horror movie, with the Greek drama formula of good versus evil, and lots of fear.

  Margot Kidder

  Drama, Evil, Hogwash

  "No kidding" by Chris Roberts, www.theguardian.com. April 8, 2005.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I am confident that we can overcome this crisis, provided that we remain united in our effort to address our debt and competitiveness problems. And I think that the Greek people are united; it's important also that the political forces are united in line with the will of the Greek people.

  Lucas Papademos

  Thinking, People, Political

  7 Copy quote

• Greece is at a crucial crossroads. The choices that are made and the policies that are enforced will have a decisive impact on the wellbeing of Greeks. The way forward will not be easy but the problems can be solved, and will be solved, if there is unity, co-operation and consensus.

  Lucas Papademos

  Way Forward, Impact, Choices

  "Lucas Papademos to lead Greece's interim coalition government" by Helena Smith, www.theguardian.com. November 10, 2011.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• In 100 years we have gone from teaching Latin and Greek in High School to teaching remedial English in college.

  Joseph Sobran

  Wisdom, Latin, Teaching

  38 Copy quote

• Versatility is one of the few human traits which are universally intolerable. You may be good at Greek and good at painting and be popular. You may be good at Greek and good at sport, and be wildly popular. But try all three and you’re a mountebank. Nothing arouses suspicion quicker than genuine, all-round proficiency.

  Dorothy Dunnett

  Sports, Trying, Three

  10 Copy quote

• I've played American, Italian, Greek, French. I've been really lucky that way.

  Chita Rivera

  Italian, Lucky, Way

  Interview with John Garcia, thecolumnonline.com.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Envy is what makes you, when an acquaintance is lustily telling you that she's dating a Greek god of a guy, ask, 'Which one, Hades?'

  Gina Barreca

  Envy, Dating, Guy

  8 Copy quote

• There was reference made to a book written in Greek by a former Rabbi who had been converted to Christianity. There was reference to a publication of a high clergyman of Milan. Not even did Jews raise objections to that book.

  Julius Streicher

  Book, Christianity, Clergymen

  83 Copy quote

• It helps to regard soul as an active intelligence, forming and plotting each person's fate. Translators use "plot" to render the ancient Greek word mythos in English. The plots that entangle our souls and draw forth our characters are the great myths. That is why we need a sense of myth and knowledge of different myths to gain insight into our epic struggles, our misalliances, and our tragedies. Myths show the imaginative structures inside our messes, and our human characters can locate themselves against the background of the characters of myth.

  James Hillman

  Struggle, Character, Fate

  James Hillman (2012). “The Force of Character: And the Lasting Life”, p.11, Ballantine Books

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• The ancient Greeks noticed that a man with arms and legs extended described a circle, with his navel as the center.

  Stephen Gardiner

  Men, Swag, Circles

  25 Copy quote

• When I was a kid, I'd kneel down at the side of my bed every night before I went to sleep, and my mother and I would say a Greek prayer to the Virgin Mary.

  Olympia Dukakis

  Mother, Prayer, Sleep

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• By being so long in the lowest form [at Harrow] I gained an immense advantage over the cleverer boys. . . . I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence - which is a noble thing. Naturally I am biased in favor of boys learning English; I would make them all learn English: and then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as an honor, and Greek as a treat.

  Winston Churchill

  Clever, Latin, Learning

  My Early Life ch. 2 (1930)

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Mass ought to be in Latin, unless you could do it in Greek or Chinese. In fact, any abracadabra that no bloody member of the public or half-educated ape of a clargimint could think he understood.

  Ezra Pound

  Latin, Thinking, Chinese

  Ezra Pound (1950). “The Selected Letters of Ezra Pound, 1907-1941”, p.339, New Directions Publishing

  18 Copy quote

  Show source