Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907), The Golden Sayings of Democritus
“Many sophisticated, intelligent people lack wisdom and common sense.”
“Though wisdom is common, yet the many live as if they had a wisdom of their own.”
Fragment 2, as quoted in Against the Mathematicians by Sextus Empiricus
Variant translation: So we must follow the common, yet the many live as if they had a wisdom of their own.
Numbered fragments
“Poverty is the lack of many things, but avarice is the lack of all things.”
Inopiae desunt multa, avaritiae omnia.
Maxim 236
Sentences
“Yet many a man is making friends with death
Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.”
Sonnet XXX from Fatal Interview (1931)
Context: Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
And rise and sink and rise and sink again;
Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath,
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907), The Golden Sayings of Democritus
“Men that love wisdom must be acquainted with very many things indeed.”
As quoted Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, V, 140, 6 (Fragment 35)
“When we know and love the best we are content to lack the approval of the many.”
Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 171
“Yet when ancient forces stir, many things are woken.”
Source: Old Kingdom series (The Abhorsen Trilogy), Abhorsen (2003), p. 60.
“The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”
“The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”
As quoted in The Hedgehog and the Fox (1953) by Isaiah Berlin
Variant translations:
The fox knows many things; the hedgehog one great thing.
The fox knows many tricks; the hedgehog one good one.
The fox knows many tricks; and the hedgehog only one; but that is the best one of all.
Fragments
