Simonides of Ceos Quotes

Simonides of Ceos offers bold, classic musings on virtue and sacrifice, great for anyone drawn to heroic, timeless wisdom.

18 quotes

1. O xein!, angellein Lakedaimoniois hoti teide keimetha tois keinon rhemasi peithomenoi.

2. Here lies Megistias, who died When the Mede passed Sephulchros' tide; A Prophet, though he would not save Himself, sharing the Spartan grave.

3. Not even the gods fight against necessity.

4. We did not flinch but gave our lives to save Greece when her fate hung on a razor's edge.

5. Painting is silent poetry, and poetry painting that speaks.

6. A man gains no possession better than a good woman, nothing more horrible than a bad one.

7. Difficult, say you? Difficult to be a man of virtue, truly good, shaped and fashioned without flaw in the perfect figure of four-squared excellence, in body and mind, in act and thought?

8. It is hard to be truly excellent, four-square in hand and foot and mind, formed without blemish.

9. The city is the teacher of the man.

10. There is no better test of a man's work than time, which also reveals the thoughts which lay hidden in his breast.

11. We count it death to falter, not to die.

12. There's no joy even in beautiful Wisdom, unless one have holy Health.

13. A man cannot possess anything that is better than a good wife, or anything that is worse than a bad one.

14. Man's strength is but little, and futile his concerns.

15. The gods do not fight against necessity.

16. Of earth's goods, the best is a good wife; a bad, the bitterest curse of human life.

17. What is life without the joy of Love?

18. If to die honorably is the greatest Part of virtue, for us fate's done her best. Because we fought to crown Greece with freedom We lie here enjoying timeless fame.