classics digests, reflections and reviews
All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, Some exit on their sick-bed, some on the battlefield, others, like Socrates and Thomas More, were executed by the state they had loved and served. Thomas More lived in late 15th and early 16th century Europe, in the time of the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation. Peter Ackroyd’s sympathetic and […]
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Why Pythagoras Called Himself a Philosopher Pythagoras was the first who called himself a philosopher; a word which heretofore had not been an appellation but a description. When Leon the tyrant of Phlius asked him who he was, he said, “A philosopher”. He likens the entrance of men into the present life to the progression of a crowd to some public spectacle. For there men of every description assemble with different views. One […]
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The Learning and Piety of Pythagoras While still young, so eager was he for knowledge, Pythagoras left his own country and had himself initiated into all the mysteries and rites not only of Greece but also of foreign countries. He learned the Egyptian language, and also journeyed among the Chaldaeans and Magi. While in Crete he went down into the cave of Ida with Epimenides; he also entered the Egyptian […]
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Diogenes’ Repartees One day when Plato had invited to his house friends coming from Dionysius, Diogenes trampled upon his carpets and said, “I trample upon Plato’s vainglory.” Plato’s reply was, “How much pride you expose to view, Diogenes, by seeming not to be proud.” Others tell us that what Diogenes said was, “I trample upon the pride of Plato,” who retorted, “Yes, Diogenes, with pride of another sort.” Some one […]
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Repartees Dionysius: What was the reason that philosophers go to rich men’s houses, while rich men no longer visit philosophers? Aristippus: The one know what they need while the other do not. Aristippus enjoyed the favours of Lais, a famous courtesan. “I have Lais, not she me; and it is not abstinence from pleasures that is best, but mastery over them without ever being worsted.” To one who reproached him […]
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The Politician is a Slave The politician must needs be a man of many sides and many forms. He must be a different man in peace from what he is in war. He resists the few with vigorous action, but uses persuasion in his dealings with the many. When the would-be popular orator mounts the platform, like a slave in the market, he becomes a bond-servant instead of a free […]
Read moreBrother and Sister His twin sister Scholastica, who was consecrated to God from her very childhood, used to come once a year to see him; unto whom the man of God was wont to go with his brethren to a house not far from the gate, within the possession of the Monastery. On one occasion, his sister, entreated him saying: “I beseech you, leave me not this night, that we […]
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