@thales · 8 excerpts
Help your parents; expect the same from your children in your old age.
Οἵους ἂν ἐράνους ἐνέγκῃς τοῖς γονεῦσι, τούτους αὐτοὺς ἐν τῷ γήρᾳ παρὰ τῶν τέκνων προσδέχου.
Traditional saying of Thales; Stobaeus, Anthologium 3.1.172, δ (Hense 1894, pp.118–119)
What is most common? Hope; for those who have nothing else have that ever with them.
Τί κοινότατον; ἐλπίς· καὶ γὰρ οἷς ἄλλο μηδέν, αὕτη πάρεστι.
Plutarch, Dinner of the Seven Wise Men 9, 153d
When he was asked what was very difficult, he said, “To know one’s self.”
Ἐρωτηθεὶς τί δύσκολον, ἔφη, τὸ ἑαυτὸν γνῶναι
DL 1.36
Time is the wisest thing; it discovers everything.
Σοφώτατον χρόνος· ἀνευρίσκει γὰρ πάντα.
DL 1.35
His doctrine was that water is the universal primary substance.
Ἀρχὴν δὲ τῶν πάντων ὕδωρ ὑπεστήσατο
DL 1.27
Do not beautify your face, but be beautiful in your pursuits.
Μὴ τὴν ὄψιν καλλωπίζεσθαι, ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἐπιτηδεύμασιν εἶναι καλόν.
DL 1.37
Surety brings ruin.
Ἐγγύα, πάρα δ᾽ ἄτα.
Stobaeus, Anthology 3.1.172
It is said that once he was led out of his house by an old woman for the purpose of observing the stars, and he fell into a ditch and bewailed himself, on which the old woman said to him—“Do you, O Thales, who cannot see what is under your feet, think that you shall understand what is in heaven?”
Λέγεται δʼ ἀγόμενος ὑπὸ γραὸς ἐκ τῆς οἰκίας, ἵνα τὰ ἄστρα κατανοήσῃ, εἰς βόθρον ἐμπεσεῖν καὶ αὐτῷ ἀνοιμώξαντι φάναι τὴν γραῦν· σὺ γάρ, ὦ Θαλῆ, τὰ ἐν ποσὶν οὐ δυνάμενος ἰδεῖν τὰ ἐπὶ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ οἴει γνώσεσθαι;
DL 1.34