西方文明简史

• Sheryl

  2019-04-28
  When, therefore, we maintain that pleasure is the end, we do not mean the pleasures of profligates and those that consist in sensuality, as is supposed by some who are either ignorant or disagree with us or do not understand, but freedom from pain in the body and from trouble in the mind. For it is not continuous drinkings and revellings, nor the satisfaction of lusts, nor the enjoyment of fish and other luxuries of the wealthy table, which produce a pleasant life, but sober reasoning, seaching out the motives for all choice and avoidance, and banishing mere opinions, to which are due the greatest disturbance of the spirit.
• Sheryl

  2019-03-21
  States might inquire whether they should undertake a military expedition...Responses were often enigmatic and at times even politically motivated. Croesus, the king of Lydia in Asia Minor, who was known for his vast wealth, sent messengers to the oracle at Delphi, asking whether he should go to war with the Persians. The oracle replied that if Croesus attacked the Persians, a mighty empire would be destroyed. Overjoyed to hear these words, Croesus made war on the Persians but was crushed by the enemy forces. A mighty empire was indeed destroyed—his own.
• Sheryl

  2019-03-15
  Unlike Herodotus, Thucydides was not concerned with divine forces or gods as causal factors in history. He saw war and politics in purely rational terms, as the activities of human beings. He examined the causes of the Peloponnesian War in a clear and objective fashion, placing much emphasis on the accuracy of his facts. As he stated:And with regard to my factual reporting of the events of the war I have made it a principle not to write down the first story that came my way, and not even to be guided by my own general impressions; either I was present myself at the events which I have described or else I heard of them from eyewitnesses whose reports I have checked with as much thoroughness as possible.
• Sheryl

  2019-03-04
  Meals were simple; the famous Spartan black broth consisted of a piece of pork boiled in blood, salt, and vinegar, causing a visitor who ate in a public mess to remark that he now understood why Spartans were not afraid to die.
• Sheryl

  2019-03-04
  democracy=Greek words demos(people)+kratia(power)
• Sheryl

  2019-03-04
  To make their new military state secure, the Spartans deliberately turned their backs on the outside world. Foreigners, who might bring in new ideas, were discouraged from visiting Sparta. Nor were Spartans, except for military reasons, encouraged to travel abroad where they might pick up new ideas that might prove dangerous to the stability of the state. Likewise, Spartan citizens were discouraged from studying philosophy, literature, or the arts—subjects that might encourage new thoughts. The art of war and of ruling was the Spartan ideal; all other arts were frowned on.
• Sheryl

  2019-03-04
  Between 1000 and 500 B.C., the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, and the Persians all forged empires that encompassed large areas of the ancient Near East. Each had impressive and grandiose capital cities that emphasised the power and wealth of its rulers. Each brought peace and order for a time by employing new administrative techniques. Each eventually fell to other conquerors. In the long run, these large empires had less impact on Western civilisation than the Hebrew people. In human history, the power of ideas is often more significant than the power of empires.
• Sheryl

  2019-03-17
  In The Clouds, for example, Aristophanes characterised the philosopher Socrates as the operator of a thought factory where people could learn deceitful ways to handle other people.
• Sheryl

  2019-03-17
  ...Over and over,the tragic lesson was repeated: humans were free and yet could operate only within limitations imposed by the gods.
• Sheryl

  2019-03-17
  Although it appears that Oedipus suffered the fate determined by the gods, Oedipus also accepts that he himself as a free man must bear responsibility for his actions: "It was Apollo, friends, Apollo, that brought this bitter bitterness, my sorrows to completion. But the hand that struck me was none but my own."