Ancient Quotes - Page 21

• He was the man who of all modern, and perhaps ancient poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul. . . . He was naturally learn'd; he needed not the spectacles of books to read Nature; he looked inwards, and found her there. . . . He is many times flat, insipid; his comic wit degenerating in to clenches, his serious swelling into bombast. But he is always great, when some occasion is presented to him.

  John Dryden

  Book, Men, Soul

  'An Essay of Dramatic Poesy' (1668) on Shakespeare

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• Only as the written text began to speak would the voices of the forest, and of the river, begin to fade. And only then would language loosen its ancient association with the invisible breath, the spirit sever itself from the wind, the psyche dissociate itself from the environing air.

  David Abram

  Air, Wind, Voice

  David Abram (1996). “The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-human World”, Pantheon

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• The telling of stories, like singing and praying, would seem to be an almost ceremonial act, an ancient and necessary mode of speech that tends the earthly rootedness of human language. For narrated events always happen somewhere. And for an oral culture, that location is never merely incidental to those occurrences. The events belong, as it were, to the place, and to tell the story of those events is to let the place itself speak through the telling.

  David Abram

  Singing, Events, Culture

  David Abram (2012). “The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World”, p.163, Vintage

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

  Plutarch

  Two, Oracles, Too Much

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• Ancient wisdom and quantum physicists make unlikely bedfellows: In quantum mechanics the observer determines (or even brings into being) what is observed, and so, too, for the Tiwis, who dissolve the distinction between themselves and the cosmos. In quantum physics, subatomic particles influence each other from a distance, and this tallies with the aboriginal view, in which people, animals, rocks, and trees all weave together in the same interwoven fabric.

  Huston Smith

  Distance, Animal, Rocks

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• The fatal hour of this ancient game is approaching. In its modern form this game will soon die a drawing death - the inevitable victory of certainty and mechanization will leave its stamp on the fate of chess.

  Emanuel Lasker

  Fate, Games, Drawing

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• Truth does not pay homage to any society, ancient or modern. Society has to pay homage to Truth or die.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Inspirational, Motivational, Divinity

  Swami Vivekananda, Swami Adiswarananda (2006). “Vivekananda, World Teacher: His Teachings on the Spiritual Unity of Humankind”, p.86, SkyLight Paths Publishing

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• It hath evermore been the notorious badge of prostituted Strumpets and the lewdest Harlots, to ramble abroad to Plays, to Playhouses; whither no honest, chaste or sober Girls or Women, but only branded Whores and infamous Adulteresses, did usually resort in ancient times.

  William Prynne

  Girl, Play, Theatre

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• The progress of democracy seems irresistible, because it is the most uniform, the most ancient and the most permanent tendency which is to be found in history.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Democracy, Progress, Uniforms

  Alexis De Tocqueville (2015). “Democracy in America: Book One”, p.30, eKitap Projesi

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

  Moliere

  Philosophy, Philosopher, Should

  L'Avare act 3, sc. 1 (1669)

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• We should lay aside every hindrance and endeavour by uniting the whole force and spirit of our people to raise again a great British nation standing up before all the world; for such a nation, rising in its ancient vigour, can even at this hour save civilization.

  Winston Churchill

  Civilization, People, Rising

  Anthony Eden, Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill (1938*). “The Austrian Crisis and British Foreign Policy: Speeches by Anthony Eden, Neville Chamberlain, and Winston Churchill”

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• Here and there in the ancient literature we encounter legends of wise and mysterious games that were conceived and played by scholars, monks, or the courtiers of cultured princes. These might take the form of chess games in which the pieces and squares had secret meanings in addition to their usual functions.

  Hermann Hesse

  Wise, Squares, Games

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• The Vedas give information on various subjects. They have come together and form one book. And in later times, when other subjects were separated from religion - when astronomy and astrology were taken out of religion - these subjects, being connected with the Vedas and being ancient, were considered very holy.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Book, Taken, Astrology

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.4503, Manonmani Publishers

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• I recently turned fifty, which is young for a tree, mid-life for an elephant, and ancient for a quarter-miler, whose son now says, "Dad, I just can't run the quarter with you anymore, unless I bring something to read."

  Bill Cosby

  Running, Dad, Son

  Bill Cosby (1987). “Time Flies”

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• The expression of our truth is an ancient action through which we actually discover our place in the world; the true shape of our being and our individuality. It is how we create firm boundaries and allow others to know who we are and what we value.

  John Earle

  Inspirational, Expression, Individuality

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• The air brightened, the running shadow patches were now the obverse, and it seemed to him that the fact that the day was clearing was another cunning stroke on the part of the foe, the fresh battle toward which he was carrying ancient wounds.

  William Faulkner

  Running, Air, Shadow

  William Faulkner (2016). “The Sound and the Fury (Third International Edition) (Norton Critical Editions)”, p.150, W. W. Norton & Company

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• No civilisation, not even that of ancient Greece, has ever undergone such a continuous and profound process of change as Western Europe has done during the last 900 years. It is impossible to explain this fact in purely economic terms by a materialistic interpretation of history. The principle of change has been a spiritual one and the progress of Western civilisation is intimately related to the dynamic ethos of Western Christianity, which has gradually made Western man conscious of his moral responsibility and his duty to change the world.

  Christopher Dawson

  Spiritual, Responsibility, Men

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• Where is your ancient courage? You were used to say extremities was the trier of spirits; That common chances common men could bear; That when the sea was calm all boats alike showed mastership in floating.

  William Shakespeare

  Men, Sea, Floating

  William Shakespeare, Joseph Dennie, Isaac Reed, Samuel Johnson, George Steevens (1809). “The plays of William Shakespeare: With the corrections and illustrations of various commentators”, p.123

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• I see the origin of the irresistible attraction of metaphor and analogy, the explanation of our strange and permanent need to find similarities in things. I can scarcely refrain from suspecting some ancient, diffused magnetism; a call from the center of things; a dim, almost lost memory, or perhaps a presentiment, pointless in so puny a being, of a universal syntax.

  Roger Caillois

  Memories, Needs, Syntax

  Roger Caillois (1985). “The writing of stones”, Univ of Virginia Pr

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• The Germanic invasions destroyed neither the Mediterranean unity of the ancient world, nor what may be regarded as the truly essential features of the Roman culture as it still existed in the 5th century, at a time when there was no longer an Emperor in the West.

  Henri Pirenne

  Unity, World, May

  Henri Pirenne (2012). “Mohammed and Charlemagne”, p.284, Courier Corporation

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• Sluggish and sedentary peoples, such as the Ancient Egyptians-- with their concept of an afterlife journey through the Field of Reeds-- project on to the next world the journeys they failed to make in this one.

  Bruce Chatwin

  Travel, Journey, Afterlife

  Bruce Chatwin (2012). “The Songlines”, p.228, Random House

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• For forty years did unbelief, murmuring, and rebellion shut out ancient Israel from the land of Canaan. The same sins have delayed the entrance of modern Israel into the heavenly Canaan. In neither case were the promises of God at fault. It is the unbelief, the worldliness, unconsecration, and strife among the Lord's professed people that have kept us in this world of sin and sorrow so many years

  Ellen G. White

  Israel, Years, Land

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• Modesty teaches us to speak of the ancients with respect, especially when we are not very familiar with their works. Newton, who knew them practically by heart, had the greatest respect for them, and considered them to be men of genius and superior intelligence who had carried their discoveries in every field much further than we today suspect, judging from what remains of their writings. More ancient writings have been lost than have been preserved, and perhaps our new discoveries are of less value than those that we have lost.

  Francis Atterbury

  Writing, Heart, Men

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• Modern physics is describing what the ancient wisdom keepers of the Americas have long known. These shamans, known as 'the Earthkeepers,' say that we’re dreaming the world into being through the very act of witnessing it. Scientists believe that we’re only able to do this in the very small subatomic world. Shamans understand that we also dream the larger world that we experience with our senses.

  Alberto Villoldo

  Dream, Believe, Long

  Alberto Villoldo (2010). “Courageous Dreaming: How Shamans Dream the World Into Being”, p.6, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• There's an ancient bond that still exists today between horses and humans, it is even there with people that have never ridden a horse or been around horses. The horse is what settled the entire west. If it weren’t for the horse they’d probably be only a couple hundred miles from where they started. A lot of people don’t realize how much they owe the horse because it’s not so much a part of our culture right now as it used to be.

  Buck Brannaman

  Horse, Couple, People

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