By music we harmoniously relax the excessive tension of gravity.
ψάλλοντες γοῦν τὸ ὑπέρτονον τῆς σεμνότητος ἐμμελῶς ἀνίεμεν.
Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 1.1.16
For, like farmers who irrigate the land beforehand, so we also water with the liquid stream of Greek learning what in it is earthy; so that it may receive the spiritual seed cast into it, and may be capable of easily nourishing it.
καθάπερ δ’ οἱ γεωργοὶ προαρδεύσαντες τὴν γῆν, οὕτω δὴ καὶ ἡμεῖς τῷ ποτίμῳ τῶν παρ’ Ἕλλησι λόγων προαρδεύομεν τὸ γεῶδες αὐτῶν, ὡς παραδέξασθαι τὸ καταβαλλόμενον σπέρμα πνευματικὸν καὶ τοῦτο εὐμαρῶς ἐκθρέψαι δύνασθαι.
Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 1.1.17
Use the temporal, desire the eternal.
Sint temporalia in usu, aeterna in desiderio.
De Imitatione Christi III.16.1
No one is so foolish as to choose war over peace. In peace sons bury their fathers, in war fathers bury their sons.
οὐδεὶς γὰρ οὕτω ἀνόητός ἐστι ὅστις πόλεμον πρὸ εἰρήνης αἱρέεται· ἐν μὲν γὰρ τῇ οἱ παῖδες τοὺς πατέρας θάπτουσι, ἐν δὲ τῷ οἱ πατέρες τοὺς παῖδας.
Herodotus 1.87
The whole world cannot stir up him whom truth has subjected to itself ; nor will he, who has made fully firm his own hope in God, be moved by the voice of all flatterers.
Non eum totus mundus erigit, quem veritas sibi subjecit ; nec omnium laudantium ore movebitur, qui totam spem suam in Deo firmavit.
De Imitatione Christi III.14.1.4
However I have arranged for my own peace, my life cannot be without war and pain.
Nam qualitercumque ordinavero de pace mea, non potest esse sine bello et dolore vita mea.
De Imitatione Christi III.12.1
A man must know the truth about all the particular things of which he speaks or writes, and must be able to define everything separately; then when he has defined them, he must know how to divide them by classes until further division is impossible; and in the same way he must understand the nature of the soul, must find out the class of speech adapted to each nature, and must arrange and adorn his discourse accordingly, offering to the complex soul elaborate and harmonious discourses, and simple talks to the simple soul. Until he has attained to all this, he will not be able to speak by the method of art, so far as speech can be controlled by method, either for purposes of instruction or of persuasion. This has been taught by our whole preceding discussion.
Πρὶν ἄν τις τό τε ἀληθὲς ἑκάστων εἰδῇ πέρι ὧν λέγει ἢ γράφει, κατ’ αὐτό τε πᾶν ὁρίζεσθαι δυνατὸς γένηται, ὁρισάμενός τε πάλιν κατ’ εἴδη μέχρι τοῦ ἀτμήτου τέμνειν ἐπιστηθῇ, περί τε ψυχῆς φύσεως διιδὼν κατὰ ταὐτά, τὸ προσαρμόττον ἑκάστῃ φύσει εἶδος ἀνευρίσκων, οὕτω τιθῇ καὶ διακοσμῇ τὸν λόγον, ποικίλῃ μὲν ποικίλους ψυχῇ καὶ παναρμονίους διδοὺς λόγους, ἁπλοῦς δὲ ἁπλῇ, οὐ πρότερον δυνατὸν τέχνῃ ἔσεσθαι καθ’ ὅσον πέφυκε μεταχειρισθῆναι τὸ λόγων γένος, οὔτε τι πρὸς τὸ διδάξαι οὔτε τι πρὸς τὸ πεῖσαι, ὡς ὁ ἔμπροσθεν πᾶς μεμήνυκεν ἡμῖν λόγος.
Plato, Phaedrus 277b-c. (tr. Fowler)
Many respect reputation, few respect conscience.
multi famam, conscientiam pauci verentur
Pliny the Younger Epp. 3.20.8
Plato tells us with all clarity that his philosophy demands the whole human being. Intellectual capability alone is insufficient; what is required is an inner relationship between the thing which is to be conveyed and the soul to which it is to be conveyed. Anybody who is not prepared to enter upon a process of inner transformation is not entitled to know the full solution either.
Thomas A. Szlezák, Reading Plato.
Shadow in law
Image in gospel
Truth in heaven
Umbra in lege
Imago in evangelio
Veritas in caelo
St. Ambrose on Psalm 38