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
The fundamental fact about the Greek was that he had to use his mind. The ancient priests had said, "Thus far and no farther. We set the limits of thought." The Greek said, "All things are to be examined and called into question. There are no limits set on thought.
When I read educational articles it often seems to me that this important side of the matter, the purely personal side, is not emphasized enough; the fact that it is so much more agreeable and interesting to be an educated person than not. The sheer pleasure of being educated does not seem to be stressed.
In every civilization, life grows easier. Men grow lazier in consequence. We have a picture of what happened to the individual Greek. (I cannot look at history, or at any human action, except as I look at the individual.) The Greeks had good food, good witty talk, pleasant dinner parties; and they were content. When the individual man had reached that condition in Athens, when the thought not of giving to the state but of what the state could give to him, Athens' freedom was doomed.
Uncertainty is the prerequisite to gaining knowledge and frequently the result as well.
Tell one your thoughts, but beware of two. All know what is known to three
It is not hard work that is dreary; it is superficial work.
Moderately wise each one should be, Not overwise, for a wise man's heart Is seldom glad (Norse Wisdom)
All things are at odds when God sets a thinker loose on the planet
..,No love cannot leave where there is no trust..,~cupid and psyche..,"Greek mythology of Edith Hamilton
None so good that he has no faults, None so wicked that he is worth naught.
To be able to be caught up into the world of thought-that is educated.
Poetry and preaching do not go well together; when the preacher mounts the pulpit the poet usually goes away.
Reality has actually very little to do with truth; there is no necessary connection between the two.
The heterodoxy of one generation is the orthodoxy of the next.