Thanksgiving

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others. 

Source: Cicero, Pro Plancio 54 B.C.
Taken From: Early to Rise Newsletter, 11/24/2011

Life's Racecourse

Life's racecourse is fixed ... Nature has only a single path and that path is run but once

Source: Cicero, Unsourced
Taken From: Strauss and Howe, The Fourth Turning, 1997

Plato's Cave

Seen from another point of view, the "monopoly of mainstream media" is a translation into actuality of Plato's celebrated figure of the cave.  The defect of the prisoners, let us recall, is that they cannot perceive the truth.  The wall before them, on which the shadows play, is the screen on which press, motion picture, and radio project their account of life.  The chains which keep the prisoners from turning their heads are the physical monopoly which the engines of publicity naturally possess.  And is it not pathetically true that these victims, with their limited vision, are "in the habit of conferring honors among themselves to those who are the quickest to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before and which followed after, and which were together"?

 Source: Richard Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences 1948

On Origins

He who thus considers things in their first growth and origin... will obtain the clearest view of them.

Source: Aristotle (Politics: 24–25)
Taken From: Daniel J. D’Amico, The Prison in Economics: Private and Public Incarceration in Ancient Greece (PDF)

Spirit of Reverence

Let parents, then, bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence

Source:  Plato, Laws Book V
Taken From: Richard Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences 1948

The Hardest Victory

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.

Source: Aristotle, may be a variant of "He who has overcome his fears will truly be free."
Taken From: Casey Research, 2011-08

Society and Wisdom

In this they bear out the observation of Socrates that society does not mind an individual's being wise; only when he begins to make others wise does it become apprehensive.

Source: Richard Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences 1948 

After Victory

After victory, you have more enemies. 

Cicero (Unsourced)
Taken From:   AntiWar.com - Link

Prohibitions & Statutes

The more prohibitions there are, the poorer the people become ...
The greater the number of statutes, the greater the number of thieves and brigands.

Lao-tzu

Spirit

When the government is too intrusive, people lose their spirit,

Lao-tzu

Time

A generation goes and a generation comes, But the earth remains forever.

Ecclesiastes 1:4

Root of Tyrants

The people always have some champion whom they set over them and nurture into greatness...
This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.

Plato (The Republic, book 8, 400BC)

Change

nothing endures but change.

Heraclitus(a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher)

Tragedy of the Commons

For that which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it.  Every one thinks chiefly of his own, hardly at all for the common interest; and only when he is himself concerned as an individual.

Aristotle (Politics, 1261, b34)

Of Men and Money

I'll tell you what I think about the way
    This city treats her soundest men today:
By a coincidence more sad than funny,
    It's very like the way we treat our money.

The noble silver drachma that of old we were
    So proud of, and the recent gold coins that
Rang true, clean-stamped and worth their weight
    Throughout the world, have ceased to circulate.

Instead , the purses of Athenian shoppers
    Are full of shoddy silver-plated coppers
Just so, when men are needed by the nation,
    The best have been withdrawn from circulation

Aristophanes, The Frogs, ~400BC

On Bread and Circuses

Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.

Roman Poet Juvenal – 77 AD

Ancients on spontaneous order

Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone.

Zhuangzi (Chinese Philosopher from the 4th Century BC)

Tu ne cede malis

Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito
Translation:  Do not give in to evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it.

Virgil, Aeneid 
Also used by Ludwig von Mises as his personal motto.

Gained by Philosophy

I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.

Aristotle

Ancients on the need for governing

[the world] does not need governing; in fact it should not be governed,

Zhuangzi (Chinese Philosopher living around 4th century BC)