“Fools, they do not even know how much more is the half than the whole.”
Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 40; often translated as "The half is greater than the whole."
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Hesiod61
Greek poetRelated quotes
“Pittacus said that half was more than the whole.”
Diogenes Laërtius (180–240) biographer of ancient Greek philosophers
Pittacus, 2.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 1: The Seven Sages
“The wise man's rule is worth much more to him than the fool's revenue.”
Mateo Alemán book Guzmán de Alfarache
Pt. II, Lib. III, Ch. III.
Guzmán de Alfarache (1599-1604)
Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet
"Kurukshetra" in Essays on the Gita (1995), p. 39
Context: Even soul-force, when it is effective, destroys. Only those who have used it with eyes open, know how much more destructive it can be than the sword and the cannon; and only those who do not limit their view to the act and its immediate results, can see how tremendous are its after-effects, how much is eventually destroyed and with that much all the life that depended upon it and fed upon it. Evil cannot perish without the destruction of much that lives by the evil, and it is no less destruction even if we personally are saved the pain of a sensational act of violence.
“The half is greater than the whole.”
Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) American pastor
Hesiod, in Works and Days
Misattributed
Morris West (1916–1999) Australian writer
The Heretic (1968)
Tony Judt book Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
Preface & Acknowledgements
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (2005)