The ancient Greeks didn’t just lay the foundations of Western philosophy they left behind a treasure trove of wisdom that still resonates today. From Socrates’ relentless pursuit of truth to Aristotle’s insights on ethics and Plato’s vision of justice, Greek philosophers explored life’s biggest questions with clarity, courage, and wit.
- “Justice means minding your own business and not meddling with other men’s concerns.” – Plato
- “Wrongdoing arises from ignorance.” – Socrates
- “The worst form of injustice is pretended justice.” – Plato
- “The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.” – Socrates
- “Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old.” – Epicurus
- “Justice is the bond of men in states.” – Aristotle
- “Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.” – Aristotle
- “It is not living that matters, but living rightly.” – Socrates
- “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” – Plato
- “There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse.” – Socrates
- “I know that I know nothing.” – Socrates
- “Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.” – Plato
- “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” – Aristotle
- “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” – Socrates
- “He who opens a school door, closes a prison.” – Pythagoras
- “An unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates
- “Much learning does not teach understanding.” – Heraclitus
- “A wise man does not need advice and a fool won’t take it.” – Democritus
- “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle
- “Contemplation is the highest form of activity.” – Aristotle
- “Love is a serious mental disease.” – Plato
- “At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet.” – Plato
- “Friends are as companions on a journey, who ought to aid each other to persevere in the road to a happier life.” – Pythagoras
- “Without friends, no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.” – Aristotle
- “One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.” – Euripides
- “Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.” – Aristotle
- “In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge.” – Aristotle
- “To love and to be wise is scarcely granted to a man.” – Sophocles
- “Life has no blessing like a prudent friend.” – Euripides
- “The friend must be like money, that before you need it, you know the value.” – Socrates
- “Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.” – Socrates
- “Life is short, the art long.” – Hippocrates
- “Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not.” – Epicurus
- “He who is not a good servant will not be a good master.” – Plato
- “A life without festivity is a long road without an inn.” – Democritus
- “The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.” – Socrates
- “The whole is more than the sum of its parts.” – Aristotle
- “You cannot step twice into the same river.” – Heraclitus
- “Time is a game played beautifully by children.” – Heraclitus
- “Happiness depends upon ourselves.” – Aristotle
- “It is the mark of an educated mind to entertain a thought without accepting it.” – Aristotle
- “The heart of man is not compound of lies, but draws some wisdom from the only Wise.” – Sophocles
- “All men’s souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.” – Socrates
- “Thinking is the talking of the soul with itself.” – Plato
- “Man is the measure of all things.” – Protagoras
- “There is nothing permanent except change.” – Heraclitus
- “He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it.” – Plato
- “Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.” – Democritus
- “He who learns but does not think, is lost.” – Confucius (not Greek, but often quoted alongside Greek thought)
- “Good means not merely not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.” – Democritus
- “Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.” – Aristotle
- “Wise people speak only when they have something to say, fools speak because they have to say something.” – Plato
- “States are as the men, they grow out of human character.” – Plato
- “The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depend upon himself… has adopted the very best plan for living happily.” – Plato
- “Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.” – Plato
- “Those who tell the stories rule society.” – Plato
- “Law is order, and good law is good order.” – Aristotle
- “The worst thing about injustice is that it breeds more injustice.” – Plato
- “He who wishes to serve his country must not only have the power to think, but also the courage to act.” – Plato
- “The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living from the dead.” – Aristotle
- “Know thyself.” – Socrates
- “The greatest victory is over self.” – Plato
- “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” – Plato
- “A man is but what he knows.” – Sophocles
- “The energy of the mind is the essence of life.” – Aristotle
- “No man is free who is not master of himself.” – Epictetus
- “He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior.” – Plato
- “The soul is the prison of the body.” – Plato
- “Only the educated are free.” – Epictetus
- “The greatest wealth is to live content with little.” – Plato
- “Nature does nothing in vain.” – Aristotle
- “God is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, surfeit and hunger.” – Heraclitus
- “All things are numbers.” – Pythagoras
- “Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.” – Aristotle
- “All is flux, nothing stays still.” – Heraclitus
- “He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.” – Marcus Aurelius (Roman, but Stoic thought echoes Greek ideas)
- “The sun is new every day.” – Heraclitus
- “The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.” – Marcus Aurelius
- “Everything flows and nothing abides.” – Heraclitus
- “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” – Not Greek, but echoes Greek natural philosophy
- “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” – Seneca (Stoic)
- “Fortune favours the bold.” – Not Greek in origin, but popularized in classical thought
- “Character is destiny.” – Heraclitus
- “Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.” – Aristotle
- “Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.” – Aristotle
- “Excellence is never an accident.” – Aristotle
- “There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” – Aristotle
- “Hope is the only good that is common to all men; those who have nothing else possess hope still.” – Thales
- “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” – Often misattributed, but fits Platonic thought
- “He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.” – Aristotle
- “Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise.” – Horace (Roman, but Stoic)
- “Learning is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and a provision in old age.” – Aristotle
- “There are two things a person should never be angry at: what they can help, and what they cannot.” – Plato
- “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” – A Stoic idea
- “Freedom is obedience to self-formulated rules.” – Aristotle
- “Wise men do not need laws; good men do not break them.” – Plato
- “Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way.” – Aristotle
- “It is not what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable.” – Molière (not Greek, but echoes Greek ethics)
- “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” – Greek proverb
- “To find yourself, think for yourself.” – Socrates
The ancient Greeks were masters of deep thought and reflection, and their words continue to inspire millions today. The insights of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and others continue to offer clarity.
