The Beginning of All Wisdom: Timeless Advice from the Ancient Greeks

Who knew the ancient Greeks had it all figured out three thousand years ago? In The Beginning of All Wisdom, author Steve Stavropoulos has sifted through nearly every recorded ancient Greek text for the very best sayings, proverbs, and maxims by ancient Greek philosophers, tragedians, scientists, politicians, generals, and poets, from Plato and Pericles to Socrates and Sophocles. Here is practical advice on everyday problems as well as answers to deep moral questions: "Getting to know yourself is extremely difficult" (Thales). "Ignorance is a tough evil to conquer" (Sophocles). "We must take care of our minds because we cannot benefit from beauty when our brains are missing." (Euripides). Organized into 100 topics that cover all human experience—anger, fear, good and evil, truth, prayer and hope, aging and old age, friendship, gossip, pain and sorrow, self-deception, war and peace, public speaking, democracy—The Beginning of All Wisdom inspires, advises, and satisfies the urge to learn the best the ancient Greeks have to teach—without having to read through a whole shelf of Loeb classics.