Apollonius of Tyana Quotes
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The natural philosopher Heraclitus said that man is naturally irrational. If this is true, as it is true, then everyone who enjoys futile glory should hide his face.
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You request my presence at the Olympic Games, and for that reason you have sent envoys. For myself, I would come for the spectacle of physical struggle, except that I would be abandoning the greater struggle for virtue.
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In my judgment excellence and wealth are direct opposites.
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Approve and pursue the kind that is in accordance with nature. But avoid the kind that claims to be inspired: people like that about tell lies about Gods, and urge us to do many foolish things.
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Plato said that virtue has no master Republic 617e. If a person does not honor this principle and rejoice in it, but is purchasable for money, he creates many masters for himself.
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I saw the Indian Brahmans living on the earth and not on it, walled without walls, and with no possessions except the whole world.
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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.
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If someone gives money to Apollonius, and the giver is someone considered respectable, he will take the money if he needs it. But he will not accept a fee for philosophy even if he does need it.
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You must shun barbarians and not govern them since, barbarians as they are, it is not right that they should receive a benefit.
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Greet your son Aristocleides from me. I pray he may not turn out like you, since you, too, were once an irreproachable young man.
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To speak falsely is the mark of a slave, but the truth is noble.
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Make yourself known as a philosopher, that is a free man.
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The soul that does not consider the question of the body’s self-sufficiency cannot make itself self-sufficient.