146 Quotes by Edith Hamilton

None so good that he has no faults, None so wicked that he is worth naught.

A magical universe was so terrifying because it was so irrational. There was no cause and effect anywhere.

Underneath the shifting sands of the struggle between two little Greek states [Thucydides] had caught sight of a universal truth. Throughout his book, through the endless petty engagements on sea and land which he relates with such scrupulous care, he is pointing out what war is, why it comes to pass, what it does, and, unless men learn better ways, must continue to do. His History of the Peloponnesian War is really a treatise on war, its causes and its effects.

We hold there is no worse enemy to a state than he who keeps the law in his own hands.

To the Greeks, the word "character" first referred to the stamp upon a coin. By extension, man was the coin, and the character trait was the stamp imprinted upon him. To them, that trait, for example bravery, was a share of something all mankind had, rather than means of distinguishing one from the whole.

Liberty depends on self-restraint. Freedom is freedom only when controlled and limited.

In strange ways hard to know gods come to men.Many a thing past hope they have fulfilled,And what was asked for went another way.A path we never thought to tread God found for us.So this has come to pass.

In strange ways hard to know gods come to men.Many a thing past hope they have fulfilled,And what was looked for went another way.A path we never thought to tread God found for us.So this has come to pass.

Escape may be checked by water and land,but the air and the sky are free.