Pythagoras of Samos
An ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician, credited with the Pythagorean theorem and the founding of the Pythagorean school.
Most quoted
"Do not allow sleep to close your eyelids, before you have reviewed all your actions of the day. How have I erred? What have I done? What have I left undone? Begin from the first and go through to the last; and then, for the evil acts, chide yourself, and for the good rejoice."
— from The Golden Verses of Pythagoras
"Do not allow sleep to close your eyelids, before you have reviewed all your actions of the day. How have I erred? What have I done? What have I left undone? Begin from the first and go through to the last; and then, for the bad, be vexed, and for the good, be glad."
— from The Golden Verses of Pythagoras
"As long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings, he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love."
— from Attributed by Ovid, -500
All quotes by Pythagoras of Samos (260)
All things are numbers.
The universe is a harmony of numbers.
There are two kinds of numbers: the one that is divine and the other that is human.
The highest wisdom is to know oneself.
The soul is a self-moving number.
The world is a living being, endowed with soul and intelligence.
The most perfect number is six, because it is the sum of its divisors.
The tetractys is the source and root of everlasting nature.
The harmony of the spheres.
The greatest blessing granted to mankind comes by way of madness, which is a divine gift.
Number is the ruler of forms and ideas and the cause of gods and men.
There is geometry in the humming of the strings. There is music in the spacing of the spheres.
Do not eat your heart; it is better to suffer in silence.
Friends share all things in common.
The soul is immortal, and like the heavenly bodies above, it is enclosed in a circle.
Reason is immortal, all else mortal.
God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.
Choose rather to be strong of soul than strong of body.
In anger we should refrain both from speech and action.
The highest discovery of all is that there is a God and He is just.
Contemporaries of Pythagoras of Samos
Other Mathematicss born within 50 years of Pythagoras of Samos (-570–-495).