Q - Xenophon
Posted on 28th January 2021
Xenophon 430 – 354BC was an Ancient Greek philosopher, historian and soldier. He was also a student of Socrates.
‘We must also be careful to educate our sons and daughters when children are born to the women whom we’ve taken as wives. Striving to set the best example we can for our children will make us act even more nobly’
‘Early on, you can expect no one to believe in your destiny as much as yourself’
‘Obedience should not be the result of Compulsion’
‘Moderation in all things healthful, total abstinence from all things harmful’
‘Excess of grief for the dead is madness; for it is an injury to the living, and the dead know it not’
‘The sweetest of all sounds is praise’
‘If you consider what are called the virtues in mankind, you will find their growth is assisted by education and cultivation’
‘Success should never breed complacency’
‘The man who doesn’t know his own ability is ignorant of himself’
‘In my experience, men who respond to good fortune with modesty and kindness are harder to find than those who face adversity with courage. For in the very nature of things, success tends to create pride and blindness in the hearts of men, while suffering teaches them to be patient and strong’
‘All the children of the great men of Persia are brought up at court, where they have an opportunity of learning great modesty, and where nothing immodest is ever heard or seen’
‘If any among you covet riches, let him endeavour to overcome, for the victorious not only preserve their own possessions but acquire those of the enemy’
‘He who marries a beautiful woman in hopes of being happy with her knows not but that even she herself may be the course of all his uneasiness’
‘Self-confidence should always ride side by side with a strong sense of humility’
’Anything forced is not beautiful’
‘No human being will ever know the truth, for even if they happened to say it by chance, they would not know they had done so’
‘A horse is a thing of beauty…none will tire of looking at him as long as he displays himself in his splendour’
‘Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything’
‘A man may hate cruelty and lies, but if he’s never given an opportunity to show what he’s made of, no one will remember him when de dies’
‘Battles are decided more by the morale of the troops than by their bodily strength’
‘Most people, when they are set upon looking into other people’s affairs, never turn to examine themselves’
‘Success always calls for greater generosity – though most people, lost in the darkness of their own egos, treat it as an occasion for greater greed’
‘In the Face of Danger, be Eager, not Intimidated’
‘He who eats with most pleasure is he who least requires sauce’
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