“The fitness (physical and moral) of kings were serious matters, for they were believed to bring on a corresponding state of land and people.”

—  Cyrus H. Gordon

Source: The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations (1965 [1962]), Ch.VII Further Observations on Homer

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The fitness (physical and moral) of kings were serious matters, for they were believed to bring on a corresponding stat…" by Cyrus H. Gordon?
Cyrus H. Gordon photo
Cyrus H. Gordon 73
American linguist 1908–2001

Related quotes

Plutarch photo

“He said they that were serious in ridiculous matters would be ridiculous in serious affairs.”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

Cato the Elder
Roman Apophthegms

“People don't get their morality from their reading matter: they bring their morality to it.”

Clive James (1939–2019) Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist

Ibid.
Essays and reviews, From the Land of Shadows (1982)

P. J. O'Rourke photo

“These were people who believed everything about the Soviet Union was perfect, but they were bringing their own toilet paper.”

P. J. O'Rourke book Republican Party Reptile

Republican Party Reptile (1987)

Richard Feynman photo

“Looking back at the worst times, it always seems that they were times in which there were people who believed with absolute faith and absolute dogmatism in something. And they were so serious in this matter that they insisted that the rest of the world agree with them. And then they would do things that were directly inconsistent with their own beliefs in order to maintain that what they said was true.”

Richard Feynman book The Meaning of It All

lecture II: "The Uncertainty of Values"
The Meaning of It All (1999)

Robert Frost photo

“The land was ours before we were the land's.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

" The Gift Outright http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/994.html" (1941)
1940s

J. B. Bury photo

“The Macedonian people and their kings were of Greek stock”

J. B. Bury (1861–1927) Irish historian and freethinker

2nd ed. (1913), p. 683 http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015026609167;view=1up;seq=725
A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great (1913)
Context: The Macedonian people and their kings were of Greek stock, as their traditions and the scanty remains of their language combine to testify.

John Mearsheimer photo

“Furthermore there's the whole argument that the administration made, that so many people were killed by chemical weapons. Their number was around 1,400, the fact of the matter is that over 40,000 other people were killed with bombs and bullets, before those 1,400 people. If 40,000 people were killed, and that didn't provide a moral justification for intervention, what's the moral justification for killing people… when 1,400 die with chemical weapons. I don't get it, in fact, I don't think there's a moral case to be made for intervention.”

John Mearsheimer (1947) American political scientist

John Mearsheimer on America Unhinged https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwqqzh59sVo provided by the Center for the National Interest. Here Mearsheimer is speaking about the Syrian conflict and potential United States intervention due to the Assad's regime alleged usage of chemical devices.

Emil M. Cioran photo

“Long before physics or psychology were born, pain disintegrated matter, and affliction the soul.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

All Gall Is Divided (1952)

John Steinbeck photo

“Boileau said that Kings, Gods and Heroes only were fit subjects for literature. The writer can only write about what he admires.”

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer

Radio interview (1939) quoted in Introduction by Robert DeMott to a 1992 edition of The Grapes of Wrath
Context: Boileau said that Kings, Gods and Heroes only were fit subjects for literature. The writer can only write about what he admires. Present-day kings aren't very inspiring, the gods are on a vacation and about the only heroes left are the scientists and the poor … And since our race admires gallantry, the writer will deal with it where he finds it. He finds it in the struggling poor now.

Pope Benedict XVI photo

“Men and women were created to be jointly the guarantee of the future of the humanity — not only a physical guarantee, but also a moral one.”

Pope Benedict XVI (1927) 265th Pope of the Catholic Church

2003

Related topics