“Socrates said, "Those who want fewest things are nearest to the gods."”

Socrates, 11.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 2: Socrates, his predecessors and followers

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Diogenes Laërtius 107
biographer of ancient Greek philosophers 180–240

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“Those who want fewest things are nearest to the Gods.”

Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher

Diogenes Laertius
Variant: [H]e was nearest to the gods in that he had the fewest wants.

Florence Earle Coates photo
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“[H]e was nearest to the gods in that he had the fewest wants.”

Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher

Diogenes Laertius

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“In a state of nature, it is an invariable law, that a man's acquisitions are in proportion to his labours. In a state of artificial society, it is a law as constant and as invariable, that those who labour most enjoy the fewest things; and that those who labour not at all have the greatest number of enjoyments.”

A Vindication of Natural Society (1756)
Context: The most obvious division of society is into rich and poor; and it is no less obvious, that the number of the former bear a great disproportion to those of the latter. The whole business of the poor is to administer to the idleness, folly, and luxury of the rich; and that of the rich, in return, is to find the best methods of confirming the slavery and increasing the burdens of the poor. In a state of nature, it is an invariable law, that a man's acquisitions are in proportion to his labours. In a state of artificial society, it is a law as constant and as invariable, that those who labour most enjoy the fewest things; and that those who labour not at all have the greatest number of enjoyments. A constitution of things this, strange and ridiculous beyond expression! We scarce believe a thing when we are told it, which we actually see before our eyes every day without being in the least surprised.

Bruce Lee photo

“In Science we have finally come back to the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus, who said everything is flow, flux, process. There are no "things."”

Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker

Source: Striking Thoughts (2000), p. 16
Context: In Science we have finally come back to the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus, who said everything is flow, flux, process. There are no "things." NOTHINGNESS in Eastern language is "no-thingness". We in the West think of nothingness as a void, an emptiness, an nonexistence. In Eastern philosophy and modern physical science, nothingness — no-thingness — is a form of process, ever moving.

“The best works are often those with the fewest and simplest elements.... until you look at them a little more, and things start to happen.”

Clyfford Still (1904–1980) American artist

As quoted in Abstract Expressionism, Davind Anfam, Thames and Hudson Ltd London, 1990, p. 137
1950s

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“For those who still said "Red Front" or "God save the Crown!"
And for those who were not courageous
But were beaten nevertheless.”

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) poet, short story writer, novelist

Litany for Dictatorships (1935)
Context: For those who still said "Red Front" or "God save the Crown!"
And for those who were not courageous
But were beaten nevertheless.
For those who spit out the bloody stumps of their teeth
Quietly in the hall,
Sleep well on stone or iron, watch for the time
And kill the guard in the privy before they die,
Those with the deep-socketed eyes and the lamp burning.

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