Xenophanes was the first person who asserted... that the soul is a spirit.

Just step aside for me to enjoy the sunshine.

Alcæus mentions Aristodemus in these lines:—’T is money makes the man; and he who ’s noneIs counted neither good nor honourable.

Bias used to say that men ought to calculate life both as if they were fated to live a long and a short time, and that they ought to love one another as if at a future time they would come to hate one another; for that most men were bad.

Ignorance plays the chief part among men, and the multitude of words.

The saying, "Practice is everything," is Periander’s.

Aristophanes turns Socrates into ridicule in his comedies, as making the worse appear the better reason.

Often when he was looking on at auctions he would say, "How many things there are which I do not need!"

Socrates said, "Those who want fewest things are nearest to the gods."

He said that there was one only good, namely, knowledge; and one only evil, namely, ignorance.

He declared that he knew nothing, except the fact of his ignorance.

Being asked whether it was better to marry or not, he replied, "Whichever you do, you will repent it."

He used to say that other men lived to eat, but that he ate to live.

Anarcharsis, on learning that the sides of a ship were four fingers thick, said that "the passengers were just that distance from death."

Another was, "Watch your opportunity."

One of his sayings was, "Even the gods cannot strive against necessity."

Thales said there was no difference between life and death. "Why, then," said some one to him, "do not you die?" "Because," said he, "it does make no difference."

When Thales was asked what was difficult, he said, "To know one’s self." And what was easy, "To advise another."

He said that men ought to remember those friends who were absent as well as those who were present.

The apophthegm "Know thyself" is his.

Writers differ with respect to the apophthegms of the Seven Sages, attributing the same one to various authors.

Solon used to say that speech was the image of actions;... that laws were like cobwebs,—for that if any trifling or powerless thing fell into them, they held it fast; while if it were something weightier, it broke through them and was off.

Solon gave the following advice: "Consider your honour, as a gentleman, of more weight than an oath. Never tell a lie. Pay attention to matters of importance."

As some say, Solon was the author of the apophthegm, "Nothing in excess."

Chilo advised, "not to speak evil of the dead."

Pittacus said that half was more than the whole.

Heraclitus says that Pittacus, when he had got Alcæus into his power, released him, saying, "Forgiveness is better than revenge."

He used to say that it was better to have one friend of great value than many friends who were good for nothing.

The market is a place set apart where men may deceive each other.

Arcesilaus had a peculiar habit while conversing of using the expression, "My opinion is," and "So and so will not agree to this."

Bion used to say that the way to the shades below was easy; he could go there with his eyes shut.

Once when Bion was at sea in the company of some wicked men, he fell into the hands of pirates; and when the rest said, "We are undone if we are known,"—"But I," said he, "am undone if we are not known."

Of a rich man who was niggardly he said, "That man does not own his estate, but his estate owns him."

Bion insisted on the principle that "The property of friends is common."

Old age is the harbor of all ills.

Wealth is the sinews of affairs.

The road to Hades is the easiest to travel.

He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him.

Very late in life, when he was studying geometry, some one said to Lacydes, "Is it then a time for you to be learning now?" "If it is not," he replied, "when will it be?"

The question was put to him, what hope is; and his answer was, "The dream of a waking man."

There is a written and an unwritten law. The one by which we regulate our constitutions in our cities is the written law; that which arises from customs is the unwritten law.

That the gods superintend all the affairs of men, and that there are such beings as dæmons.

It was a common saying of Myson that men ought not to investigate things from words, but words from things; for that things are not made for the sake of words, but words for things.

Epimenides was sent by his father into the field to look for a sheep, turned out of the road at mid-day and lay down in a certain cave and fell asleep, and slept there fifty-seven years; and after that, when awake, he went on looking for the sheep, thinking that he had been taking a short nap.

There are many marvellous stories told of Pherecydes. For it is said that he was walking along the seashore at Samos, and that seeing a ship sailing by with a fair wind, he said that it would soon sink; and presently it sank before his eyes. At another time he was drinking some water which had been drawn up out of a well, and he foretold that within three days there would be an earthquake; and there was one.

Anaximander used to assert that the primary cause of all things was the Infinite,—not defining exactly whether he meant air or water or anything else.

Anaxagoras said to a man who was grieving because he was dying in a foreign land, "The descent to Hades is the same from every place."

Aristippus being asked what were the most necessary things for well-born boys to learn, said, "Those things which they will put in practice when they become men."

Once Diogenes, who was washing vegetables, ridiculed him as he passed by, and said, "If you had learnt to eat these vegetables, you would not have been a slave in the palace of a tyrant." But Aristippus replied, "And you, if you had known how to behave among men, would not have been washing vegetables."

Aristippus said that a wise man’s country was the world.