Apollonius Quotes & Sayings

It is the duty of the law-giver to deliver to the many the instructions of whose truth he has persuaded himself. — Apollonius Of Tyana

In my judgment, excellence and wealth are direct opposites, since when the one shrinks, the other grows, and when one grows, the other shrinks. — Apollonius Of Tyana

It seems to me that all the evidence points to Apollonius as the founder of Greek mathematical astronomy. — Otto E. Neugebauer

The gods, as they are beneficent, if they find anyone who is healthy and whole and unscarred by vice, will send him away, surely, after crowning him, not with golden crowns, but with all sorts of blessings. — Apollonius Of Tyana

As soldiers need not only courage but tactics also, so does a philosopher need not only courage and philosophy but discernment also, to tell what his right time of dying is - so that he neither seek it nor flee it. — Apollonius Of Tyana

The gods do not need sacrifices, so what might one do to please them? Acquire wisdom, it seems to me, and do all the good in one's power to those humans who deserve it. — Apollonius Of Tyana

My ideal is for each to do what he knows and what he can. — Apollonius Of Tyana

Philostratus, in his Life of Apollonius Tyaneus represents the latter as informing King Phraotes that the Oneiropolists, or Interpreters of Visions, are wont never to interpret any vision till they have first enquired the time at which it befell; for, if it were early, and of the morning sleep, they then thought that they might make a good interpretation thereof ... in that the soul was then fitted for divination, and disincumbered. But if in the first sleep, or near midnight, while the soul was as yet clouded and drowned in libations, they, being wise, refused to give any interpretation. — Anna Kingsford

O thou Sun, send me as far over the earth as is my pleasure and thine, and may I make the acquaintance of good men, but never hear anything of bad ones, nor they of me. — Apollonius Of Tyana

Pythagoras said that medicine is the most godlike of arts. But if the most godlike, it should tend to the soul as well as the body, or else a living thing must be unhealthy, being diseased in its higher part. — Apollonius Of Tyana

It is a true man's part not to err, but it is also noble of a man to perceive his error. — Apollonius Of Tyana

In India, I found a race of mortals living upon the Earth, but not adhering to it, inhabiting cities, but not being fixed to them, possessing everything, but possessed by nothing — Apollonius Of Tyana

Don't keep your good manners to the end another time, but begin with them. — Apollonius Of Tyana

I have not yet learned to keep still. — Apollonius Of Tyana

I delight to lodge in such temples as are not regularly kept closed. None of the gods reject me; they make me partner of their roof. — Apollonius Of Tyana

You need not wonder at my knowing all human languages; for, to tell you the truth, I also understand all the secrets of human silence. — Apollonius Of Tyana

Never may a man prone to believe scandal be a despot or a popular leader! Under his guidance, democracy itself will be despotism. — Apollonius Of Tyana

Pythagoras said that the most divine art was that of healing. And if the healing art is most divine, it must occupy itself with the soul as well as with the body; for no creature can be sound so long as the higher part in it is sickly. — Apollonius Of Tyana

If any man has left us for fear of Nero, I shall not account him a coward; but I shall hail as a philosopher any man who has been superior to this fear, and I shall teach him all I know. — Apollonius Of Tyana

It is at the time of dawn that we must commune with the gods. — Apollonius Of Tyana

Festivals cause diseases, since they lighten cares but increase gluttony. — Apollonius Of Tyana

It is India that gave us the ingenious method of expressing all numbers by means of ten symbols, each symbol receiving a value of position as well as an absolute value; a profound and important idea which appears so simple to us now that we ignore its true merit. But its very simplicity and the great ease which it has lent to computations put our arithmetic in the first rank of useful inventions; and we shall appreciate the grandeur of the achievement the more when we remember that it escaped the genius of Archimedes and Apollonius, two of the greatest men produced by antiquity. — Pierre-Simon Laplace

He who understands Archimedes and Apollonius will admire less the achievements of the foremost men of later times. — Gottfried Leibniz

We find in the history of ideas mutations which do not seem to correspond to any obvious need, and at first sight appear as mere playful whimsies such as Apollonius' work on conic sections, or the non-Euclidean geometries, whose practical value became apparent only later. — Arthur Koestler

I pray as follows: May justice reign, may the laws not be broken, may the wise men be poor, and the poor men rich, without sin. — Apollonius Of Tyana

Just as an individual of pre-eminent worth transforms democracy into a monarchy of the best man, even so the rule of one man, if in all things it has an eye to the common welfare, is democracy. — Apollonius Of Tyana

All the earth is mine, and I have a right to go all over it and through it. — Apollonius Of Tyana

Virtue comes by nature, learning, and practice, and thanks to virtue, all of the aforesaid may deserve approval. — Apollonius Of Tyana

Do not consider that to be wealth which is hoarded away, for how is it better than sand gathered from the nearest heap? Nor that which comes in from men who groan at their taxes: for the gold that is wrung from tears is of base alloy and black. — Apollonius Of Tyana

O ye gods, grant unto me to have little and to want nothing. — Apollonius Of Tyana

There is no death of anyone, save in appearance, just as
there is no birth of any, save only in seeming. — Apollonius Of Tyana

A working woman, rising before dawn to spin and needing light in her cottage room, piles brushwood on a smoldering log, and the whole heap kindled by the little brand goes up in a mighty blaze. Such was the fire of Love, stealthy but all-consuming, that swept through Medea's heart. In the turmoil of her soul, her soft cheeks turned from rose to white and white to rose. — Apollonius Of Rhodes

Every argument is incapable of helping unless it is singular and addressed to a single person. Therefore, one who discourses in any other way presumably does so from love of reputation. — Apollonius Of Tyana

I feel friendship towards philosophers, but towards sophists, teachers of literature, or any other such kind of godforsaken people, I neither feel friendship now, nor may I ever do so in the future. — Apollonius Of Tyana

The ingenious method of expressing every possible number using a set of ten symbols (each symbol having a place value and an absolute value) emerged in India. The idea seems so simple nowadays that its significance and profound importance is no longer appreciated ... The importance of this invention is more readily appreciated when one considers that it was beyod the two greatest men of antiquity, Archimedes and Apollonius. — Pierre-Simon Laplace

Plato said that virtue has no master. If a person does not honor this principle and rejoice in it, but is purchasable for money, he creates many masters for himself. — Apollonius Of Tyana

I asked certain rich men if they felt embittered. 'How could we not?' they said. So I asked them what caused this anguish. They blamed their wealth. — Apollonius Of Tyana

Nero may have understood how to tune his cithern, but he disgraced his imperial office both by slackening and by tightening the strings. — Apollonius Of Tyana

A man must fortify himself and understand that a wise man who yields to laziness or anger or passion or love of drink, or who commits any other action prompted by impulse and inopportune, will probably find his fault condoned; but if he stoops to greed, he will not be pardoned, but render himself odious as a combination of all vices at once. — Apollonius Of Tyana

And so a barrow to this hero was raised in that land, and there stands a token for men of later days to see, the trunk of a wild olive tree, such as ships are built of; and it flourishes with its green leaves a little below the Acherusian headland. And — Apollonius Of Rhodes

In my travels, which have been wider than ever man yet accomplished, I have seen many, many wild beasts of Arabia and India; but this beast, that is commonly called a Tyrant, I know not how many heads it has, nor if it be crooked of claw, and armed with horrible fangs. — Apollonius Of Tyana

Thus, though I learnt my fate from evil omens even before now, I have left my fatherland to embark on the ship, that so after my embarking fair fame may be left me in my house. — Apollonius Of Rhodes

Nothing shall part us in our love till Thanatos (Death) at his appointed hour removed us from the light of day. — Apollonius Of Rhodes

The famous Apollonius being very early at Vespasian's gate, and finding him stirring, from thence conjectured that he was worthy to govern an empire, and said to his companion, This man surely will be emperor; he is so early. — Nicolas Caussin

With these words of prayer he threw the barley-grains. The two heroes responsible for the oxen, might Ankaios and Herakles, girded themselves in preparation. The latter crashed his club down on the middle of the forehead of one ox; in one movement its heavy body fell to the ground. Ankaios cut the other's broad neck with his bronze axe, slicing through the tough tendons; it fell sprawling over its two horns. Their comrades quickly slaughtered and flayed the oxen, chopping and cutting them up and removing the thigh pieces for sacrifice These they covered all over with a thick layer of fat and burnt them on spits, while the son of Aison poured libations of unmixed wine. Idmon rejoiced as he gazed at the flame, which burnt brightly all around the sacrifices, and the favourable omen of the murky smoke, darting up in dark spirals. — Apollonius Of Rhodes

I asked questions when I was a stripling, and it is not my business to ask questions now, but to teach people what I have discovered. — Apollonius Of Tyana

Multicolored stones and paintings, walkways, and theaters are useless in a city unless it also contains wisdom and law. Such things are the subject of wisdom and law, not equivalent to them. — Apollonius Of Tyana

Her heart smoldered with pain as he passed from sight her soul crept out of her, as in a dream, and fluttered in his steps. — Apollonius Of Rhodes

The only prayer which a well-meaning man can pray is, O ye gods, give me whatever is fitting unto me! — Apollonius Of Tyana

When I review Xerxes' achievements, I praise him, not for having yoked the Hellespont, but for having crossed it. But I can see that Nero will neither sail through the Isthmus nor complete his digging. — Apollonius Of Tyana

If you have problems of conduct that are difficult and hard to settle, I will furnish you with solutions, for I not only know matters of practice and duty, but I even know them beforehand. — Apollonius Of Tyana