When the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.
Edith HamiltonRead
I came to the Greeks early, and I found answers in them. Greece's great men let all their acts turn on the immortality of the soul. We don't really act as if we believed in the soul's immortality and that's why we are where we are today.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of believing in the immortality of the soul as a guiding principle for actions.
Edith Hamilton reflects on the insights gained from ancient Greek philosophy, highlighting how the great thinkers of Greece based their lives and actions on the belief in the immortality of the soul. She suggests that modern society has strayed from this idea, leading to a disconnection from deeper moral and ethical motivations, which contributes to contemporary issues.
Themes
ImmortalitySoulPhilosophyGreekActionsBeliefEthics
In practice
Example use cases
During a philosophy lecture about ancient beliefs.
More from Edith Hamilton
All quotes →The power of good is shown not by triumphantly conquering evil, but by continuing to resist evil while facing certain defeat.
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Theories that go counter to the facts of human nature are foredoomed.
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To rejoice in life, to find the world beautiful ... was a mark of the Greek spirit.
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Responsibility is the price every man must pay for freedom.
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So far, we do not seem appalled at the prospect of exactly the same kind of education being applied to all the school children from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but there is an uneasiness in the air, a realization that the individual is growing less easy to find; an idea, perhaps, of what standardization might become when the units are not machines, but human beings.
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