Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Pythagoras

Delphi, Greece - 2007



1. “Above all things, reverence yourself.”
2. "Above the cloud with its shadow is the star with its light. Above all things reverence thyself."
3. “A man never stands as tall as when he kneels to help a child.”
4. “As soon as laws are necessary for men, they are no longer fit for freedom.”
5. “A thought is an idea in transit.”
6. "Be silent or say something better than silence"
7. "Concern should drive us into action and not into a depression. No man is free who cannot control himself."
8. Darkness we see emerges into light, / And shining suns descend to sable night; / Ev'n Heav'n it self receives another dye, / When weary'd animals in slumbers lie / Of midnight ease: another, when the gray / Of morn preludes the splendor of the day. // Why thus affrighted at an empty name, / A dream of darkness, and fictitious flame? / Vain themes of wit, which but in poems pass, / And fables of a world, that never was! / What feels the body, when the soul expires, / By time corrupted, or consum'd by fires? / Nor dies the spirit, but new life repeats / In other forms, and only changes seats.
“Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in a few.”
9. "Everything is arranged according to number and mathematical shape"
10. “Geometry is knowledge of the eternally existent.”
11. "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."
12. “In this theater of man's life, it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers-on.”
13. “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.”
14. “Life, Prince Leon, may well be compared with these public Games for in the vast crowd assembled here some are attracted by the acquisition of gain, others are led on by the hopes and ambitions of fame and glory. But among them there are a few who have come to observe and to understand all that passes here. It is the same with life. Some are influenced by the love of wealth while others are blindly led on by the mad fever for power and domination, but the finest type of man gives himself to discovering the meaning and purpose of live itself. He seeks to uncover the secrets of nature. This is the man I call a philosopher for although no man is completely wise in all respects, he can love wisdom as the key to nature´s secrets.”
15. "Knowledge is the greatest purification"
16. “No one is free who has not obtained the empire of himself.”
17. “Man is a microcosm, or little world, as possessing in miniature all the qualities found on a great scale in the Universe; by his reason and intelligence partaking of the Divine Nature: and by his faculty of changing aliments into.”
18. “Number is the ruler of forms and ideas, and is the cause of gods and demons.”
19. “Number is the within of all things.”
20. "Numbers Rule the universe"
21. “Reason is immortal, all else mortal.”
22. “Rest satisfied with doing well, and leave others to talk of you as they please.”
23. "Strength of mind rests in sobriety; for this keeps your reason unclouded by passion."
24. ”The oldest, shortest words -- "yes' and "no" -- are those which require the most thought.”
25. “There is geometry in the humming of the strings.”
26. “There is nothing so easy but that it becomes difficult when you do it reluctantly.”
27. “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.”