Wise Quotes from Ancient Philosophers

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: ADSE255


"Carpe diem! Rejoice while you are alive; enjoy the day; live life to the fullest; make the most of what you have. It is later than you think.” - Horace

I thought that was Holly Golightly.

originally posted by: angeldoll
I thought that was Holly Golightly.

Breakfast at the Forum?

- They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

- The worst wheel of the cart makes the most noise.

Benjamin Franklin

Not so ancient, but oh well...

a reply to: Indigent

Cool, thanks. (Sometimes that flash of insight you come upon IS the right answer, is the only argument I have with it.) But thanks for the translation!

originally posted by: ADSE255
Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century: Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others; Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected; Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it; Refusing to set aside trivial preferences; Neglecting development and refinement of the mind; Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do - Marcus Tullius Cicero

This is good stuff. Here's one I never forgot.
"You make shi**y decisions, you will have a shi**y life"......Dad.

a reply to: Turkenstein

A job worth doing, is worth doing well. - Dad (mine).

"What one programmer can do in one month, two programmers can do in two months." - Fred Brooks

Ovid
"It is convenient that there be gods, and, as it is convenient, let us believe that there are."

Tacitus
"It is part of human nature to hate the man you have hurt." "As wrong as that sounds, is debatable". And a possible psychopath trait dependant on circumstance.

Marcus Aurelius
"Every instant of time is a pinprick of eternity."

Voltaire
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
(Attributed to Voltaire, but actually S. G. Tallentyre's summary of Voltaire's attitude towards Helvetius following the burning of the latter's De l'esprit in 1759)

Marcus Aurelius had so many and most resonate even today. Here are a few of my favorites:

“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”

“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”

“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”

a reply to: RomaSempre

Of these quotes, this is my favored.

“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” 

originally posted by: new_here
a reply to: dfnj2015

* If you see the Buddha on the road then kill him.

Can someone explain this one to me???

The point is that you cannot kill Buddha, because fortune/karma/life dictated and demonstrated that he was immune from murder . Several failed attempts to kill him were made on his life , but timely co-incidences enabled him to walk away. Consider the reasons for this .
ETA you'd have to slacken or even abandon strict reasoning to understand , to crush the ball of doubt

a reply to: ZIPMATT

This I should have gotten, thanks. I need to do some research on Buddha and re-aquaint myself with his philosophies, and life.

Why hasn't Diogenes been mentioned here?

Here is some wisdom from the original cynic!

a reply to: chelsdh

Heavy.

There's a lesson in this. No two Philosophers are created equally.

Sounds like a few modern day stars were genetically linked to this guy, Diogenes

Miley Cyrus comes to mind.

a reply to: ADSE255

I don't know... I think Diogenes was onto something. Sounds like he could trade words with the best of them!

(paraphrase) "To the initiate, the possibilities are endless. To the expert, the possibilities are few." - not sure if it was Sun Tzu or someone else.

a reply to: chelsdh

Will definitely give him that, and agree.