Heraclitus, Fragment 61
“The road upward and down is one and the same.”
ὁδὸς ἄνω κάτω μία καὶ ὡυτή.
Some Heraclitus references.
Parmenides, fr. 6.16
“The path of all things goes backwards.”
…πάντων δὲ παλίντροπός ἐστι κέλευθος.
Euenus (Simplicius on Aristotle’s Physics 4.221a31)
“Time is the wisest and most unteachable thing.”
σοφώτατόν τοι κἀμαθέστατον χρόνος
Seneca, De Brevitate Vitae 1.1
“We don’t have too little time, but we do waste most of it. Life is long enough for the completion of the greatest affairs—it is apportioned to us generously, if it is wholly well managed.”
non exiguum temporis habemus, sed multum perdidimus. satis longa uita et in maximarum rerum consummationem: large data est, si tota bene conlocaretur.
Diocles, fr. 14 (Photius, a247)
“Let no one of you ever long to get old.
Think instead how to die at the right time
Still young and living life well
And how not to wear on to the toothless time of life.”
μηδείς ποθ᾿ ὑμῶν, ἄνδρες, ἐπιθυμησάτω
γέρων γένεσθαι. περινοησάτω δ᾿
ὅπως νέος ὢν ἀγαθόν τι τῆ̣ ψυχῆ̣ παθὼν
ὥρᾳ καταλύσῃ μηδ᾿ ἀγόμφιόν ποτε
αἰῶνα τρίψει
“No one loves living as much as a man growing old”
τοῦ ζῆν γὰρ οὐδεὶς ὡς ὁ γηράσκων ἐρᾷ
Cicero, On Old Age 24
“No one is so old that he thinks he could not live another year”
nemo enim est tam senex qui se annum non putet poss
“Alas, the ancient proverb holds well:
We old men are nothing other than a sound
and an image, lurking imitations of dreams.
We have no mind and but we think we know how to think well.”
φεῦ φεῦ, παλαιὸς αἶνος ὡς καλῶς ἔχει·
γέροντες οὐδέν ἐσμεν ἄλλο πλὴν ψόφος
καὶ σχῆμ’, ὀνείρων δ’ ἕρπομεν μιμήματα·
νοῦς δ’ οὐκ ἔνεστιν, οἰόμεσθα δ’ εὖ φρονεῖν.
Democritus, fr. 296
“Old age is the perfect handicap: it has everything and lacks everything.”
γῆρας ὁλόκληρός ἐστι πήρωσις·
πάντ’ ἔχει καὶ πᾶσιν ἐνδεῖ.
