155 Ancients Quotes

Following is our list of ancients quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about ancient greek wisdom.

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Famous Ancients Quotes

All this worldly wisdom was once the unamiable heresy of some wise man. — Henry David Thoreau

Better a drop of wisdom than an ocean of gold — Greek Proverbs

Wisdom overcomes fortune. — Juvenal

The middle path is the way to wisdom — Rumi

Wise people have an inward sense of what is beautiful, and the highest wisdom is to trust this intuition and be guided by it. — Aristotle

A short saying often contains much wisdom. — Sophocles

madness, in a higher sense, is the beginning of all wisdom — Hermann Hesse

The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations. — Benjamin Disraeli

Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past, Wisdom is of the future. - American Indian Proverbs

Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past, Wisdom is of the future. — American Indian Proverbs

The seven wise men of Greece, so famous for their wisdom all the world over, acquired all that fame, each of them, by a single sentence consisting of two or three words. — Robert South

Colors fade, temples crumble, empires fall, but wise words endure. - Edward Thorndike

Colors fade, temples crumble, empires fall, but wise words endure. — Edward Thorndike

The deepest words of the wise man teach us the same as the whistle of the wind when it blows or the sound of the water when it is flowing. — Antonio Machado

Wisdom sails with wind and time. — John Florio

There are gems of thought that are ageless and eternal. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

There are two sentences inscribed upon the Ancient oracle... "Know thyself" and "Nothing too much"; and upon these all other precepts depend. — Plutarch

Short Ancients Quotes

  • I am neither a child, a young man, nor an ancient; nor am I of any caste. — Guru Nanak
  • I have a high art, I hurt with cruelty those who would damage me. — Archilochus
  • Ancient Hawaiians say: When you're itching for the waves, the only lotion is the ocean. — Josip Broz Tito
  • Foolish the doctor who despises the knowledge acquired by the ancients. — Hippocrates
  • Sex and sleep alone make me conscious that I am mortal. — Alexander The Great
  • Love is no assignment for cowards. — Ovid
  • Be as you wish to seem. — Socrates
  • No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full. — Sulla
  • Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid. — Harrison Ford
  • Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie. — Steven Pressfield

Ancients Image Quotes

Where our work is, there let our joy be. - Tertullian quote

Where our work is, there let our joy be. — Tertullian

Atlantis was destroyed by the greed of its inhabitants. - Frederick Lenz quote

Atlantis was destroyed by the greed of its inhabitants. — Frederick Lenz

Ancients quote Ancient lovers believed a kiss would literally unite their souls, because the spirit was said to be
Ancient lovers believed a kiss would literally unite their souls, because the spirit was said to be carried in one's breath.

Ancient Chinese Quotes

According to the ancient Chinese proverb, A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step. — John F. Kennedy

The mystery school continued throughout the greater Egyptian civilization, which was the second age of humankind and later on into the third age of humankind when the Indian, Chinese, Japanese and Tibetan high cultures flourished — Frederick Lenz

To ancient Chinese fancy, the Milky Way was a luminous river, - the River of Heaven, - the Silver Stream. — Lafcadio Hearn

On Easter or Christmas Day, my mother might drag me to church, just as she dragged me to the Buddhist temple, the Chinese New Year celebration, the Shinto shrine, and ancient Hawaiian burial sites. — Barack Obama

I like the fact that in ancient Chinese art the great painters always included a deliberate flaw in their work: human creation is never perfect. — Madeleine L'Engle

Ancient tradition always depicts a true Chinese musician as blind. Esoterically, this implies that his gift of the divine art is so completely guided by, and dedicated to, hosts of the celestial guardians, that both his sight and consciousness are focused above and beyond the objective world. — Corinne Heline

If you look at ancient Chinese culture, and depictions of it, the relationship between people and nature was very different. It almost felt as though feelings were always attached to a certain landscape. — Jia Zhangke

I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganges, astronomy, astrology, metempsychosis, etc. It does not behoove us, who were only savages and barbarians when these Indians and Chinese peoples were civilized and learned, to dispute their antiquity. — Voltaire

Ho Chi Minh rarely wrote about Sun Tzu, but when he did mention the ancient Chinese military strategist, he was always laudatory, and he sometimes cited his ideas as a model for the Vietnamese revolutionary movement to follow. — William J. Duiker

The ancient Egyptians had a superstitious antipathy to the sea; a superstition nearly of the same kind prevails among the Indians; and the Chinese have never excelled in foreign commerce. — Adam Smith

Ancient Greek Wisdom Quotes

What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others. — Pericles

Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in a few. — Pythagoras

...for the object of education is to teach us to love beauty. — Plato

Those whose hearts are fixed on Reality itself deserve the title of Philosophers. — Plato

To live well and honorably and justly are the same thing. — Socrates

Old Wisdom Quotes

Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician. — Dorothy Parker

In a country where the sole employer is the State, opposition means death by slow starvation. The old principle: who does not work shall not eat, has been replaced by a new one: who does not obey shall not eat. — Leon Trotsky

‎In every crisis there is a message. Crises are nature's way of forcing change - breaking down old structures, shaking loose negative habits so that something new and better can take their place. — Susan L. Taylor

An old man’s sayings are rarely untrue. — Danish Proverbs

Old foxes want no tutor. — Vietnamese Proverbs

When an old man dies, a library is burned with him. — African Proverbs

The young have the strength, the old have the wisdom. — Albanian Proverbs

Take an old man’s counsel and an experienced man’s knowledge — Greek Proverbs

It is a mistake to regard age as a downhill grade toward dissolution. The reverse is true. As one grows older, one climbs with surprising strides. — George Sand

How earthy old people become --moldy as the grave! Their wisdom smacks of the earth. There is no foretaste of immortality in it. They remind me of earthworms and mole crickets. — Henry David Thoreau

Spiritual Wisdom Quotes

Don’t depend too much on anyone in this world because even your own shadow leaves you when you are in darkness. — Ibn Taymiyyah

People are of two types, they are either your brothers in faith or your equals in humanity. — Ali ibn Abi Talib

Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation. — Rumi

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. — Albert Einstein

Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions. — Hafez

Does money upset the hearts of learned men? He answered, "men whose hearts are changed by money are not learned" — Al-Ghazali

If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them and what you do not know, you will fear. What one fears, one destroys. — Chief Dan George

Intellect takes you to the door, but it doesn't take you into the house. - Shams Tabrizi

Intellect takes you to the door, but it doesn't take you into the house. — Shams Tabrizi

At the end of the day, you can have something in your head, something in your hand, or something in your heart. What are you choosing? — Mooji

All the ups and downs are grace in different wrappings, sent to refine consciousness. Say thanks to them all. — Mooji

Ancient Philosophy Quotes

After the conversations about Indian philosophy, some of the ideas of Quantum Physics that had seemed so crazy suddenly made much more sense. — Werner Heisenberg

Every trace of the old philosophy and literatureof the ancient world has vanished from the face of the earth. — Saint John Chrysostom

Ancient philosophy proposed to mankind an art of living. By contrast, modern philosophy appears above all as the construction of a technical jargon reserved for specialists. — Pierre Hadot

The idea of the universe as an interconnected whole is not new; for millennia it's been one of the core assumptions of Eastern philosophies. What is new is that Western science is slowly beginning to realize that some elements of that ancient lore might be correct. — Dean Radin

According to the saying of an ancient philosopher, one should eat to live, and not live to eat — Moliere

The gift of truth excels all other gifts. — Buddha

(The Tao) is always present and always available. . . . If you are willing to be lived by it, you will see it everywhere, even in the most ordinary things. — Lao Tzu

An ingenious compound of desirability and appearance. Discovery of truth is the sole purpose of philosophy, which is the most ancient occupation of the human mind and has a fair prospect of existing with increasing activity to the end of time. — Ambrose Bierce

The food we ate was Indian, and both my mother and father were very deep into the ancient philosophy of India, so it could well have been an Indian household. — Amar Bose

Academe : An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught. Academy : A modern school where football is taught. — Ambrose Bierce

Great Wisdom Quotes

Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom. — Charles Spurgeon

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children. — Kahlil Gibran

If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice? — David Livingstone

A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers. - Ruth Graham

A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers. — Ruth Graham

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh, and the greatness which does not bow before children. — Kahlil Gibran

The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things. — Ronald Reagan

The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed. — Hudson Taylor

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. — Albert Einstein

An observer of men who finds himself steadily repelled by some apparently trifling thing in a stranger is right to give it great weight. It may be the clue to the whole mystery. A hair or two will show where a lion is hidden. A very little key will open a very heavy door. — Charles Dickens

Great minds think alone. — Wiz Khalifa

Indian Wisdom Quotes

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children — Chief Seattle

Wisdom and peace come when you start living the life the creator intended for you. — Geronimo

Where no one intrudes, many can live in harmony. - Chief Dan George

Where no one intrudes, many can live in harmony. — Chief Dan George

How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right. — Black Hawk

Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles. — Black Elk

The land is sacred. These words are at the core of your being. The land is our mother, the rivers our blood. Take our land away and we die. That is, the Indian in us dies. — Mary Brave Bird

Knowledge was inherent in all things. The world was a library. - Luther Standing Bear

Knowledge was inherent in all things. The world was a library. — Luther Standing Bear

Old age is not as honorable as death, but most people seek it. — David Gemmell

Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. — Tecumseh

We were contented to let things remain as the Great Spirit Chief made them. They were not; and would change the rivers and mountains if they did not suit them. — Chief Joseph

Native Wisdom Quotes

We do not want churches because they will teach us to quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth, but we never quarrel about the Great Spirit. We do not want to learn that. — Chief Joseph

The faintness of the stars, the freshness of the morning, the dewdrop on the flower, speaks to me. — Chief Dan George

When the Earth is sick, the animals will begin to disappear, when that happens, The Warriors of the Rainbow will come to save them. — Chief Seattle

You ask me to plow the ground. Shall I take a knife and tear my mother's bosom? Then when I die she will not take me to her bosom to rest. — Wovoka

It is important to understand that there are many different ways of seeing the world and expressing the wisdom of Native belief...No one voice speaks for all voices. — Joseph Bruchac

Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view and demand that they respect yours. — Tecumseh

The earth was created by the assistance of the sun, and it should be left as it was. The country was made without lines of demarcation, and it is no man's business to divide it. — Chief Joseph

All things are bound together. All things connect. — Chief Seattle

We are going by you without fighting if you will let us, but we are going by you anyhow! — Chief Joseph

Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. — Black Elk

Divine Wisdom Quotes

Dear friend, Your heart is a polished mirror. You must wipe it dean of the veil of dust that has gathered upon it, because it is destined to reflect the light of divine secrets. — Al-Ghazali

We have come into this exquisite world to experience ever and ever more deeply our divine courage, freedom and light! — Hafez

Do not surrender your grief so quickly Let it cut more deeply Let it ferment and season you As few human or divine ingredients can Something is missing in my heart tonight That has made my eyes so soft And my voice so tender And my need of God so absolutely clear. — Hafez

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. — Francis of Assisi

As you walk in God's divine wisdom, you will surely begin to see a greater measure of victory and good success in your life. — Joseph Prince

It is the growing custom to narrow control, concentrate power, disregard and disenfranchise the public; and assuming that certain powers by divine right of money-raising or by sheer assumption, have the power to do as they think best without consulting the wisdom of mankind. — W. E. B. Du Bois

Worry is itself an illness, since worry is an accusation against Divine Wisdom, a criticism of Divine Mercy. — Said Nursi

By living a life based on wisdom and truth, one can discover the divinity of the soul, its union to the universe, the supreme peace and contentment which comes from satisfying the inner drive for self-discovery. — Egyptian Proverbs

The eye of the heart, though closed in fallen man, is able to take in a glimmering of light and this is faith. But anyway of living causes a covering like rust to accumulate over the heart so that it cannot sense the Divine origin of Allah's message. — Martin Lings

I, the fiery life of divine wisdom, I ignite the beauty of the plains, I sparkle the water, I burn in the sun, and the moon, and the stars. — Hildegard of Bingen

People Writing About Ancients

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Read quotes by Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau
quotes on nature, civil disobedience and solitude

2697 19655
Read quotes by Greek Proverbs

Greek Proverbs
quotes on ancient, wisdom and culture

176 1
Read quotes by Juvenal

Juvenal

300 1355
Read quotes by Rumi

Rumi
quotes on love, life and change

1754 29170
Read quotes by Aristotle

Aristotle
quotes on life, love and success

1252 18854
Read quotes by Sophocles

Sophocles
quotes on life, love and fate

439 2549

More Ancients Quotes

We must complain. Yes, plain, blunt complaint, ceaseless agitation, unfailing exposure of dishonesty and wrong - this is the ancient, unerring way to liberty and we must follow it. — W. E. B. Du Bois

The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope. — Wendell Berry

İstanbul is a magical seal which unites Europe and Asia since the ancient times. Without a doubt, Istanbul is certainly the most beautiful place of the world. — Gerard De Nerval

You know, the ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death. When their souls got to the entrance to heaven, the guards asked two questions. Their answers determined whether they were able to enter or not. 'Have you found joy in your life?' 'Has your life brought joy to others?' — Morgan Freeman

Ancient Egypt was a Negro Civilization. The history of Black Africa will remain suspended in air and cannot be written correctly until African historians dare to connect it with the history of Egypt. — Cheikh Anta Diop

O, You who are ever giving life to all life, moving all creatures, root of all things, washing them clean, wiping out their mistakes, healing their wounds, You are our true life, luminous, wonderful, awakening the heart from its ancient sleep. — Hildegard of Bingen

How carelessly imperial power vivisected ancient civilizations. Palestine and Kashmir are imperial Britain's festering, blood-drenched gifts to the modem world. Both are fault lines in the raging international con�icts of today. — Arundhati Roy

Knowledge has always been important, of course. The ancient Egyptians did not raise the stones for the pyramids relying on the incantations of their gods. The waters in the irrigation canals of the great Indus Civilisation did not flow according to the laws of ignorance. Knowledge has always been power and wealth. — Mahathir Mohamad

It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity. — Alexander Hamilton

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. — John F. Kennedy

Ubuntu is not a biblical concept but an ancient African one. Nevertheless it falls back on one simple thing: that humans have been created for togetherness, and what drives us apart is greed, lust for power, and a sense of exclusion, but those are aberrations. — Allan Boesak

When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous — Albert Einstein

According to Herodotus, the ancient Persians felt that what was necessary in the background of a young man entering adulthood was his ability to ride, shoot straight, and speak the truth. Perhaps we should now grant our college degrees to young men who measure up to that standard. — Jeff Cooper

Freemasonry is an ancient and respectable institution, embracing individuals of every nation, of every religion, and of every condition in life. Wealth, power and talents are not necessary to the person of a Freemason. An unblemished character and a virtuous conduct are the only qualifications for admission into the Order. — Andrew Jackson

My point, once again, is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are now dumb enough to take them literally. — John Dominic Crossan

The helicopter is probably the most versatile instrument ever invented by man. It approaches closer than any other to fulfillment of mankind's ancient dreams of the flying horse and the magic carpet. — Igor Sikorsky

It is true that we aspire to our ancient land. But what we want in that ancient land is a new blossoming of the Jewish spirit. — Theodor Herzl

Tahiti has been spoiled for many years, but Bali is one of the few cultures with origins in one of the great ancient cultures which is still alive. — Arthur Erickson

Hermeticism is the science of nature hidden in the hieroglyphics and symbols of the ancient world. It is the search for the principle of life, along with the dream (for those who have not yet achieved it) of accomplishing the great work, that is the reproduction by man of the divine, natural fire which creates and recreates beings. — Eliphas Levi

Perhaps these ancient observatories like Stonehenge perennially impress modern people because modern people have no idea how the Sun, Moon, or stars move. We are too busy watching evening television to care what's going on in the sky. — Neil deGrasse Tyson

Do not struggle. Go with the flow of things, and you will find yourself at one with the mysterious unity of the Universe. — Zhuangzi

The tumalt and shouting dies, The captains and the kings depart. Still stands thine ancient sacrifice, An humble and a contrite heat. Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget, lest we forget. — Rudyard Kipling

Just as the ancients danced to call upon the spirits in nature, we too can dance to find the spirits within ourselves that have been long buried and forgotten. — Anna Halprin

Man, born of woman, has found it a hard thing to forgive her for giving him birth. The patriarchal protest against the ancient matriarch has borne strange fruit through the years. — Lillian Smith

Naturally I never had the intention to offend or alienate Slavs. ... What makes me different from the 'nazis' are basically three things; unlike them I am not socialistic (not even on a national level), I am not materialistic and I believe in (the ancient Scandinavian!) democracy. — Varg Vikernes

I call this a ‘lost art’ because so many of these new discoveries aren’t new at all. Most of the techniques I’ll be exploring have been around for hundreds, sometimes thousands of years. They were created, documented, forgotten, and discovered in another culture at another time, then forgotten again. This went on for centuries. — James Nestor

The metaphor of the king as the shepherd of his people goes back to ancient Egypt. Perhaps the use of this particular convention is due to the fact that, being stupid, affectionate, gregarious, and easily stampeded, the societies formed by sheep are most like human ones. — Northrop Frye

Ancient yoga, and its focus on prana, sitting, and breathing, has turned into a form of aerobic exercise. — James Nestor

The favorite device of the devil, ancient and modern, is to force a human being into a more or less artificial class, accuse the class of unnamed and unnameable sin, and then damn any individual in the alleged class, however innocent he may be. — W. E. B. Du Bois

Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners. — Vladimir Lenin

We've always known that our bodies are capable of healing themselves under the right conditions: Diet and exercise improve our health. But there are also ancient genetic survival pathways in every living thing. — David Sinclair

Hundreds of years ago, Indian artists created visual images of dancing Shivas in a beautiful series of bronzes. In our time, physicists have used the most advanced technology to portray the patterns of the cosmic dance. The metaphor of the cosmic dance thus unifies ancient mythology, religious art and modern physics. — Fritjof Capra

Keep to the ancient way and custom of the Church, established and confirmed by so many Saints under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And live a new life. Pray, and get others to pray, that God not abandon His Church, but reform it as He pleases, and as He sees best for us, and more to His honor and glory. — Angela Merici

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