Sparks Commentary

“The best writings of antiquity upon government those I mean of Aristotle , Zeno and Cicero are lost. We have human nature, society, and un...

People have been curious about the natural world for as long as human beings have existed. The scientific impulse began very early in our hi...

“The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato .” – Alfr...

“It is indeed the opinion of Protagoras, who has another way of expressing it. Man, he says, is the measure of all things , of the existence...

“We must not expect of Aristotle such literary brilliance as floods the pages of the dramatist-philosopher Plato. Instead of giving us great...

“You know also that the beginning is the most important part of any work , especially in the case of a young and tender thing; for that is t...

There’s a brief mention of the Epicureans and Stoics in the New Testament . Specifically, in “The Acts of the Apostles,” it is said that “c...

“That’s the strange thing about writing, which makes it truly analogous to painting. The painter’s products stand before us as though they w...

“ Declare, O Muse! in what ill-fated hour Sprung the fierce strife, from what offended power Latona’s son a dire contagion spread, And heap...

“[Chaerephon] went to Delphi and boldly asked the oracle to tell him … whether anyone was wiser than I was, and the Pythian prophetess ans...

“[I] am a sort of gadfly , given to the state by the god; and the state is a great and noble steed who is tardy in his motions owing to hi...

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates at his trial, as recorded by Plato's “Apology” Before beginning this project...

One of the great Macedonian kings was Philip II of Macedon . He fathered the boy who would become  Alexander the Great , and he hired a t...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints  is among a number of churches that value the wisdom of Socrates. Church leaders have even...

You might try the Loeb Classical Library , described at Wikipedia here and found at this website here . (The rest of this post is about h...

"Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans , and of the Stoicks , encountered him [Paul]. And some said, What will this babbler say...

It is well-known among my friends that I am a foreign language buff. Some of my friends also know that I am a  philosophy  buff as well. ...

Aristotle "Have you ever heard of Plato? Aristotle? Socrates?" "Yes." "Morons." (Or were they?) ...