Edith Hamilton
Edith Hamilton
Edith Hamiltonwas an American educator and author who was "recognized as the greatest woman Classicist." She was 62 years old when The Greek Way, her first book, was published in 1930. It was instantly successful, and is the earliest expression of her belief in "the calm lucidity of the Greek mind" and "that the great thinkers of Athens were unsurpassed in their mastery of truth and enlightenment."...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth12 August 1867
CountryUnited States of America
A tendency to exaggeration was a Roman trait.
No facts, however indubitably detected, no effort of reason, however magnificently maintained, can prove that Bach's music is beautiful.
We must not contradict, but instruct him that contradicts us; for a madman is not cured by another running mad also. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought -- that is being educated.
The fullness of life is in the hazards of life. And, at the worst, there is that in us which can turn defeat into victory.
They were the first Westerners. The spirit of the West, the modern spirit, is a Greek discovery; and the place of the Greeks is in the modern world.
Ages of faith and of unbelief are always said to mark the course of history.
The Greeks were the first intellectualists. In a world where the irrational had played the chief role, they came forward as the protagonists of the mind.
The Greek temple is the creation, par excellence, of mind and spirit in equilibrium.
The Old Testament is the record of men's conviction that God speaks directly to men.
The comedy of each age holds up a mirror to the people of that age, a mirror that is unique.
Convention, so often a mask for injustice ...
To rejoice in life, to find the world beautiful and delightful to live in, was a mark of the Greek spirit which distinguished it from all that had gone before. It is a vital distinction.
There is a field where all wonderful perfections of microscope and telescope fail, all exquisite niceties of weights and measures, as well as that which is behind them, the keen and driving power of the mind. No facts however indubitably detected, no effort of reason however magnificently maintained, can prove that Bach's music is beautiful.
To be able to be caught up into the world of thought - that is being educated.