“You will know that wretched men are the cause of their own suffering, who neither see nor hear the good that is near them, and few are the ones who know how to secure release from their troubles.”

— Pythagoras

As quoted in Divine Harmony: The Life and Teachings of Pythagoras by John Strohmeier and Peter Westbrook (1999)
The Golden Verses
Context: You will know that wretched men are the cause of their own suffering, who neither see nor hear the good that is near them, and few are the ones who know how to secure release from their troubles. Such is the fate that harms their minds; like pebbles they are tossed about from one thing to another with cares unceasing. For the dread companion Strife harms them unawares, whom one must not walk behind, but withdraw from and flee.

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 "You will know that wretched men are the cause of their own suffering, who neither see nor hear the good that is near th…" by Pythagoras?

Pythagoras 121

ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher -585–-495 BC

Related quotes

“What a scandal to hear nature deprecated in comparison to Greek statues by one who knows neither one nor the other without acknowledging that the smallest part of Nature confounds and amazes those who know most. What statue or cast of it might there be that is not copied from divine nature?”

Francisco De Goya (1746–1828) Spanish painter and printmaker (1746–1828)

In a report in 1792 - Goya wrote to the Academy of San Fernando, on 'teaching art'; as quoted in Francisco Goya y Licientis, Janis Tomlinson, Phaodon 1999, p. 70
1790s

“Who is so deafe or so blinde as is hee
That wilfully will neither heare nor see?”

John Heywood (1497–1580) English writer known for plays, poems and a collection of proverbs

Part II, chapter 9.
Proverbs (1546), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“In order to know about the illnesses of society, you have to know what men are suffering from, how they suffer.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

As quoted in Testimonies About Che (2006) by Marta Rojas, p. 85

“I know about people who talk about suffering for the common good. It's never bloody them! When you hear a man shouting "Forward, brave comrades!" you'll see he's the one behind the bloody big rock and the wearing the only really arrow-proof helmet!”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

“Men who cannot believe in the mystery of our Saviour's redemption can believe that spirits from the dead have visited them in a stranger's parlour, because they see a table shake and do not know how it is shaken; because they hear a rapping on a board, and cannot see the instrument that raps it; because they are touched in the dark, and do not know the hand that touches them.”

Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) English novelist (1815-1882)

The New Zealander (1965), p. 73

“Look round the habitable world: how few
Know their own good, or knowing it, pursue.”

John Dryden (1631–1700) English poet and playwright of the XVIIth century

Juvenal, Satire X (1693), lines 1–2.

“The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that their release from pain will come only when their tormentors suffer.”

Laura Hillenbrand book Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Source: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

“The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it - basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.”

Charles Bukowski book Tales of Ordinary Madness

Tales of ordinary madness (1967-83)
Variant: .. the free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it - basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them...
Source: Tales of Ordinary Madness

“And among his hearers were a few good men,
Many who were evil,
And most who were neither,
Like all men in all places.”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

Choruses from The Rock (1934)
Context: There came one who spoke of the shame of Jerusalem
And the holy places defiled;
Peter the Hermit, scourging with words.
And among his hearers were a few good men,
Many who were evil,
And most who were neither,
Like all men in all places.

“Dying is nothing. You have to know how to disappear. Dying comes down to a biological chance and that is of no consequence. Disappearing is of a far higher order of necessity. You must not leave it to biology to decide when you will disappear. To disappear is to pass into an enigmatic state which is neither life nor death. Some animals know how to do this, as do savages, who withdraw while still alive, from the sight of their own people.”

Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French sociologist and philosopher

1980s, Cool Memories (1987, trans. 1990)

“You will know that wretched men are the cause of their own suffering, who neither see nor hear the good that is near them, and few are the ones who know how to secure release from their troubles.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Pythagoras 121

Related quotes

Related topics