What I want to fix your attention on is the vast overall movement towards the discrediting, and finally the elimination, of every kind of human excellence -- moral, cultural, social or intellectual. And is it not pretty to notice how 'democracy' (in the incantatory sense) is now doing for us the work that was once done by the most ancient dictatorships, and by the same methods The basic proposal of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be 'undemocratic.' Children who are fit to proceed may be artificially kept back, because the others would get a trauma by being left behind. The bright pupil thus remains democratically fettered to his own age group throughout his school career, and a boy who would be capable of tackling Aeschylus or Dante sits listening to his coeval's attempts to spell out A CAT SAT ON A MAT. We may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when 'I'm as good as you' has fully had its way. All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will vanish. The few who might want to learn will be prevented who are they to overtop their fellows And anyway, the teachers -- or should I say nurses -- will be far too busy reassuring the dunces and patting them on the back to waste any time on real teaching. We shall no longer have to plan and toil to spread imperturbable conceit and incurable ignorance among men.
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Unions in wedlock are perverted by the victory of shameless passion that masters the female among men and beasts.
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He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.
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Destiny waits alike for the free man as well as for him enslaved by another's might.
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He who goes unenvied shall not be admired.
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Memory is the mother of all wisdom.
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For know that no one is free, except Zeus.
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God loves to help him who strives to help himself.
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He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.
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We must pronounce him fortunate who has ended his life in fair prosperity.
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Bronze is the mirror of the form wine, of the heart.
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Whoever is new to power is always harsh.
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It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.
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It is easy when we are in prosperity to give advice to the afflicted.
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In every tyrant's heart there springs in the end this poison, that he cannot trust a friend.
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You have been trapped in the inescapable net of ruin by your own want of sense.
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For children preserve the fame of a man after his death.
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When a man's willing and eager the god's join in.
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Who, except the gods, can live time through forever without any pain?
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There is no sickness worse for me than words that to be kind must lie.
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Death is easier than a wretched life; and better never to have born than to live and fare badly.
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Wisdom comes alone through suffering.
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It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.
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Death is softer by far than tyranny.
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For there is no defense for a man who, in the excess of his wealth, has kicked the great altar of Justice out of sight.
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Time as he grows old teaches all things.
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What good is it to live a life that brings pains?
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Of all the gods only death does not desire gifts.
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Willingly no one chooses the yoke of slavery.
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Bronze in the mirror of the form, wine of the mind.
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