Pythagoras

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Πυθαγόρας (Pythagoras) (582 BC – 496 BC) Greek philosopher and mathematician.

Attributed

• A thought is an idea in transit.

• Above the cloud with its shadow is the star with its light. Above all things reverence thyself.

• Abstain from beans.
  • This was long thought to be a dietary proscription, but many now think it is likely to have been advice against getting involved in politics, for voting on issues in his time was often done by using differently colored beans.

• Anger begins in folly, and ends in repentance.

• As long as Man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings, he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.

• As soon as laws are necessary for men, they are no longer fit for freedom.

• Begin thus from the first act, and proceed; and, in conclusion, at the ill which thou hast done, be troubled, and rejoice for the good.

• Choose always the way that seems the best, however rough it may be; custom will soon render it easy and agreeable

• Choose rather to be strong of soul than strong of body.

• Concern should drive us into action and not into a depression. No man is free who cannot control himself.

• Do not eat your heart.

• Educate the children and it won't be necessary to punish the men.

• Friends are as companions on a journey, who ought to aid each other to persevere in the road to a happier life.

• Friends share all things.

• I was at Euphorbus at the siege of Troy.

• If there be light, then there is darkness; if cold, heat; if height, depth; if solid, fluid; if hard, soft; if rough, smooth; if calm, tempest; if prosperity, adversity; if life, death.

• In anger we should refrain both from speech and action.

• In this theater of man's life, it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers-on.

• It is better wither to be silent, or to say things of more value than silence. Sooner throw a pearl at hazard than an idle or useless word; and do not say a little in many words, but a great deal in a few.

• It is only necessary to make war with five things; with the maladies of the body, the ignorances of the mind, with the passions of the body, with the seditions of the city and the discords of families.

• Let not sleep fall upon thy eyes till thou has thrice reviewed the transactions of the past day. Where have I turned aside from rectitude? What have I been doing? What have I left undone, which I ought to have done?

• No one is free who has not obtained the empire of himself. No man is free who cannot command himself.

• "Not frequently man from man," (has been, correctly or otherwise, interpreted as being an exhortation to moderation about homosexual liaisons)

• Numbers inevitably will lead a person down the path of reason

• Reason is immortal, all else mortal.

• Remind yourself that all men assert that wisdom is the greatest good, but that there are few who strenuously seek out that greatest good.

• Rest satisfied with doing well, and leave others to talk of you as they please.
  • Variant: Rest satisfied with doing well, and leave others to talk of you as they will.

• Silence is better than unmeaning words.

• Strength of mind rests in sobriety; for this keeps your reason unclouded by passion.

• The most momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or evil.

• The oldest, shortest words— "yes" and "no"— are those which require the most thought.

• The soul of man is divided into three parts, intelligence, reason, and passion. Intelligence and passion are possessed by other animals, but reason by man alone.

• There is geometry in the humming of the strings, there is music in the spacing of the spheres.

• There is nothing so easy but that it becomes difficult when you do it reluctantly.

• Truth is so great a perfection, that if God would render himself visible to men, he would choose light for his body and truth for his soul.

• Virtue is harmony.

• Wisdom thoroughly learned will never be forgotten.

• Write in the sand the flaws of your friend.

• No man is free who cannot command himself

Quotes about Pythagoras

• The following became universally known: first, that he maintains that the soul is immortal; second, that it changes into other kinds of living things; third, that events recur in certain cycles and that nothing is ever absolutely new; and fourth, that all living things sould be regarded as akin. Pythagoras seems to have been the first to bring these beliefs into Greece.
  • Porphyrius in Life of Pythagoras

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