Apollonius of Tyana
Apollonius of Tyana
Apollonius of Tyana, sometimes also called Apollonios of Tyana, was a Greek Neopythagorean philosopher from the town of Tyana in the Roman province of Cappadocia in Anatolia. Being a 1st-century orator and philosopher around the time of Jesus, he was compared with Jesus of Nazareth by Christians in the 4th century and by other writers in modern times...
NationalityGreek
ProfessionPhilosopher
prayer men giving
The only prayer which a well-meaning man can pray is, O ye gods, give me whatever is fitting unto me!
cities race earth
In India, I found a race of mortals living upon the Earth, but not adhering to it, inhabiting cities, but not being fixed to them, possessing everything, but possessed by nothing
birth appearance seeming
There is no death of anyone, save in appearance, just as there is no birth of any, save only in seeming.
art healing long
Pythagoras said that the most divine art was that of healing. And if the healing art is most divine, it must occupy itself with the soul as well as with the body; for no creature can be sound so long as the higher part in it is sickly.
diseased godlike higher tend
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.
both imperial understood
Nero may have understood how to tune his cithern, but he disgraced his imperial office both by slackening and by tightening the strings.
contains equivalent stones subject theaters unless useless wisdom
Multicolored stones and paintings, walkways, and theaters are useless in a city unless it also contains wisdom and law. Such things are the subject of wisdom and law, not equivalent to them.
believe despot itself man popular prone scandal
Never may a man prone to believe scandal be a despot or a popular leader! Under his guidance, democracy itself will be despotism.
action anger fault himself impulse laziness love man odious render understand vices wise yields
A man must fortify himself and understand that a wise man who yields to laziness or anger or passion or love of drink, or who commits any other action prompted by impulse and inopportune, will probably find his fault condoned; but if he stoops to greed, he will not be pardoned, but render himself odious as a combination of all vices at once.
alloy base consider gathered men nearest nor sand tears wealth
Do not consider that to be wealth which is hoarded away, for how is it better than sand gathered from the nearest heap? Nor that which comes in from men who groan at their taxes: for the gold that is wrung from tears is of base alloy and black.
deliver persuaded truth whose
It is the duty of the law-giver to deliver to the many the instructions of whose truth he has persuaded himself.
human knowing truth understand wonder
You need not wonder at my knowing all human languages; for, to tell you the truth, I also understand all the secrets of human silence.
asked business people
I asked questions when I was a stripling, and it is not my business to ask questions now, but to teach people what I have discovered.
asked blamed caused certain felt men
I asked certain rich men if they felt embittered. 'How could we not?' they said. So I asked them what caused this anguish. They blamed their wealth.