Ancient Quotes

“Ancients pulled metals more precious than gold from the center of the earth - They spun into giant lacy wings that flew them to the stars and back
"Is that what you'd do with wings?"
She shook her head "No, I'd fly to the stars, but I'd never come back”
― Mary E. Pearson, The Kiss of Deception

“So, apart from casting runes, what other hobbies do you have? Forbidden rituals, human sacrifices, torturing? –”
― Simona Panova, Nightmarish Sacrifice

“I regard the Bible, especially the Old Testament, the same as I do most other ancient books, in which there is some truth, a great deal of error, considerable barbarism and a most plentiful lack of good sense.”
― Robert G. Ingersoll

“I am all that hath been, and is, and shall be; and my veil no mortal has hitherto raised.”
― Plutarch

“As to the ancient historians, from Herodotus to Tacitus, we credit them as far as they relate things probable and credible, and no further: for if we do, we must believe the two miracles which Tacitus relates were performed by Vespasian, that of curing a lame man, and a blind man, in just the same manner as the same things are told of Jesus Christ by his historians. We must also believe the miracles cited by Josephus, that of the sea of Pamphilia opening to let Alexander and his army pass, as is related of the Red Sea in Exodus. These miracles are quite as well authenticated as the Bible miracles, and yet we do not believe them; consequently the degree of evidence necessary to establish our belief of things naturally incredible, whether in the Bible or elsewhere, is far greater than that which obtains our belief to natural and probable things.”
― Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

“There are those whose views about religion are not very different from my own, but who nevertheless feel that we should try to damp down the conflict, that we should compromise it. … I respect their views and I understand their motives, and I don't condemn them, but I'm not having it. To me, the conflict between science and religion is more important than these issues of science education or even environmentalism. I think the world needs to wake up from its long nightmare of religious belief; and anything that we scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion should be done, and may in fact be our greatest contribution to civilization.”
― Steven Weinberg

“Ancient lovers believed a kiss would literally unite their souls, because the spirit was said to be carried in one's breath.”
― Eve Glicksman

“Life is Not a perpetual climb towards Greatness.
For our family, ourselves, and friends,
It is but sad Decay, so,
Let every girl die after her Hebé (Ἥβη).
And every man after his Aristeia(ἀριστεία).”
― Roman Payne

“The unknown grayish mystifying forest was benumbed into frost-covered cold, and the tremendous pines towering above the dark marshy soil resembled a gathering of severe mute brothers from a forbidden ancient order worshiping forgotten gods no one had ever heard of outside of the world of secret occult visions.”
― Simona Panova, Nightmarish Sacrifice

“On the seventh day of the Seventh-month, in the Palace of Long Life,
We told each other secretly in the quiet midnight world
That we wished to fly in heaven, two birds with the wings of one,
And to grow together on the earth, two branches of one tree."
Earth endures, heaven endures; some time both shall end,
While this unending sorrow goes on and on for ever.”
― Bai Juyi

“Move thy tongue,
For silence is a sign of discontent.”
― Elizabeth Cary, The Tragedy of Mariam

“The answer to the ancient question 'Why is there something rather than nothing?' would then be that ‘nothing’ is unstable.”
― Frank Wilczek

“Whoa, don't assume, dude," Marco said. "My mom always said, when you assume you make an ass of u and me--”
― Peter Lerangis, Lost in Babylon

“Auguste Comte, in particular, whose social system, as unfolded in his Systeme de Politique Positive, aims at establishing (though by moral more than by legal appliances) a despotism of society over the individual, surpassing anything contemplated in the political ideal of the most rigid disciplinarian among the ancient philosophers.”
― John Stuart Mill

“Ancient documents described the symbol as an ambigram—ambi meaning
“both”—signifying it was legible both ways. And although ambigrams were common in symbology—
swastikas, yin yang, Jewish stars, simple crosses—the idea that a word could be crafted into an
ambigram seemed utterly impossible.”
― Dan Brown, Angels & Demons

“What is deemed as “his-story” is often determined by those who survived to write it. In other words, history is written by the victors...Now, with the help of the Roman historian Tacitus, I shall tell you Queen Boudicca’s story, her-story……”
― Thomas Jerome Baker, Boudicca: Her Story

“As on many mornings in Marin, there is this sly strip of fog - water in it's most mystical incarnation - slithering over, around, and through the hills, making everything look ancient and unsolved.”
― Jaimal Yogis, Saltwater Buddha: A Surfer's Quest to Find Zen on the Sea

“The Dog was a different matter. She was new, or so old that any book that told of her was long since dust. The creature in the fog thought the latter.”
― Garth Nix

“Shadowed beneath his brow bone were cold dark eyes containing secrets and sadness, bitterness and grief.”
― T.L. Parker, The Devil's Graveyards

“Todo en él era viejo excepto sus ojos.”
― Ernest Hemingway

“I am neither modern nor ancient - just contemporary, as every Guru was. If one is not relevant for today, what is the point?”
― Sadghuru

“Whoso meditates on the Omniscient, the Ancient, more minute than the atom, yet the Ruler and Upholder of all, Unimaginable, Brilliant like the Sun, beyond the reach of darkness.”
― Shri Purohit Swami, Bhagavad Gita: Annotated & Explained

“[We need reforms] to make the Negro church a place where colored men and women of education and energy can work for the best things regardless of their belief or disbelief in unimportant dogmas and ancient and outworn creeds.”
― W.E.B. Du Bois

“-flashed Langdon the thumbs-up
sign. Langdon smiled weakly and returned the gesture, wondering if she knew it was the ancient phallic
symbol for masculine virility.”
― Dan Brown, Angels & Demons

“His concept of allochrony - initially introduced shyly as 'untimeliness', then later radicalized to an exit from modernity - is based on the idea, as suggestive as it is fantastic, that antiquity has no need of repetitions enacted in subsequent periods, because it 'essentially' returns constantly on its own strength. In other words, antiquity - or the ancient - is not an overcome phase of cultural development that is only represented in the collective memory and can be summoned by the wilfulness of education. It is rather a kind of constant present - a depth time, a nature time, a time of being - that continues underneath the theatre of memory and innovation that occupies cultural time.”
― Peter Sloterdijk, Du mußt dein Leben ändern

“It made the woman feel like a thousand seas had come together from all worlds, like faraway lands had been bridged together, and the vastness of the known and the unknown were somehow easier to comprehend.”
― M.C. Sburlea, In Roman Times: Empires and Madness

“Rising Sun jostles hard to evaporate doom filled clouds;hovering ancient land.”
― Aniruddha Sastikar

“If not now, when?" - Hillel The Pharisee”
― Hillel The Pharisee

“Faith has been a cornerstone and foundation of our species, and other of the hominidae taxonomy for millions of years. It is the foundation of good relationships, confidence, and even discerning wisdom and truth.”
― Leviak B. Kelly, The Leprechaun Delusion

“When the travesties scattered throughout our modern art museums are set alongside the glories of ancient Greece, the Christian heart should swell with pride.”
― Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture: A Protestant Vision for Middle Earth