A Quote by Paul Provenza

We look at the ancient Greeks with their gods on a mountain top throwing lightning bolts and say, 'Those ancient Greeks. They were so silly. So primitive and naive. Not like our religions. We have burning bushes talking to people and guys walking on water. We're ...sophisticated.'

Paul Provenza

Quote Topics

Ancient Ancient Greek Bolts Burning Burning Bush Bushes Gods Greeks Guys Lightning Lightning Bolts Like Look Mountain Mountain Top Naive Our People Primitive Religions Say Silly Sophisticated Talking Those Throwing Top Walking Walking On Water Water Were

Quote Author

Paul Provenza
American - Actor
Born: July 31, 1957

Experts in ancient Greek culture say that people back then didn't see their thoughts as belonging to them. When ancient Greeks had a thought, it occurred to them as a god or goddess giving an order. Apollo was telling them to be brave. Athena was telling them to fall in love. Now people hear a commercial for sour cream potato chips and rush out to buy, but now they call this free will. At least the ancient Greeks were being honest.

Chuck Palahniuk

You believe in a book that has talking animals, wizards, witches, demons, sticks turning into snakes, burning bushes, food falling from the sky, people walking on water, and all sorts of magical, absurd and primitive stories, and you say that we are the ones that need help?

Mark Twain

The ancient Greeks did not have to wrestle with the philosophical problem of the existence of evil. They did not claim their gods were good, just magnificent.

Margaret Visser

Eratosthenes was the director of the great library of Alexandria, the Centre of science and learning in the ancient world. Aristotle had argued that humanity was divided into Greeks and everybody else, whom he called barbarians and that the Greeks should keep themselves racially pure. He thought it was fitting for the Greeks to enslave other peoples. But Erathosthenes criticized Aristotle for his blind chauvinism, he believed there was good and bad in every nation.

Carl Sagan

What we were trying to do was take the notion of Greek tragedy, of fated and doomed people, and instead of these Olympian gods, indifferent, venal, selfish, hurling lightning bolts and hitting people in the ass for no reason — instead of those guys whipping it on Oedipus or Achilles, it’s the postmodern institutions . . . those are the indifferent gods.

David Simon

The games of the ancient Greeks were, in their original institutions, religious solemnities.

Dorothea Brande

The ancient Greeks were the first ones to say an unexamined life is not worth living. They don't tell you of course what we found out, an examined life not that fascinating either.

Colin Quinn

The ancient Greeks kept women athletes out of their games. They wouldn't even let them on the sidelines. I'm not sure but that they were right.

Avery Brundage

Psychological factors are vital. We don't learn how to improve our emotional intelligence. Even in ancient cultures, such as the Greeks, cultivation of the art of being able to enter a state of awareness that is deeply blissful, and beyond thought and feeling as such. Many people have become disillusioned with religions and, as such, have turned away from pursuing anything spiritual. That create a loss of sense of purpose and a lot of anger. Sure, there are all sorts of problems with organised religions, but there are also all sorts of problems with the world of 'science' too.

Patrick Holford

The ancient Greeks, as Plato reports, believed that we discover truth through "reminiscence," that is by "remembering," by intuitively searching into our own experience.

Rollo May

Artificial creatures date back to the ancient Chinese and Greeks. Renaissance automata were designed primarily to entertain, reflecting the value placed on leisure.

Ken Goldberg

The life of the ancient Greeks and Romans has profoundly influenced our own, and yet the ways in which they affect us do not present themselves on the surface of our ordinary experiences.

John Dewey

The technological revolution is itself a direct descendant of the Ancient Greeks' historia, and the web is populated by young people who want to dive into the past.

Bettany Hughes

These three qualities I recommend to you; tenacity, goodness, and intelligence. They are as valuable today as they were in the time of the ancient Greeks, Romans and during the renaissance. They will help make you good professionals.