It is certain that the labors of these early workers in the field of natural knowledge were brought to a standstill by the decay and disruption of the Roman Empire, the consequent disorganisation of society, and the diversion of men's thoughts from sublunary matters to the problems of the supernatural world suggested by Christian dogma in the Middle Ages. And, notwithstanding sporadic attempts to recall men to the investigation of nature, here and there, it was not until the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that physical science made a new start, founding itself, at first, altogether upon that which had been done by the Greeks. Indeed, it must be admitted that the men of the Renaissance, though standing on the shoulders of the old philosophers, were a long time before they saw as much as their forerunners had done.

~ Thomas Henry Huxley

Thomas Henry Huxley Ancient Greeks Dogma Greek Investigation Knowledge Labor Middle Ages Nature Philosophers Renaissance Roman Empire Rome Science Supernatural

That which is chiefly the office of a general, to force the enemy into fighting when he finds himself the stronger, and to avoid being driven into it himself when he is the weaker...

~ Plutarch

Plutarch Agesilaus Caesar General Greece Military Pompey Rome Strategy

... man by nature is not a wild or unsocial creature, neither was he born so, but makes himself what he naturally is not, by vicious habit; and that again on the other side, he is civilized and grows gentle by a change of place, occupation, and manner of life, as beasts themselves that are wild by nature, become tame and tractable by housing and gentler usage...

~ Plutarch

Plutarch Civilization Habit Man S Nature Pompey Rome

In February 1912, ancient China came to an end when the last of three millennia of Chinese emperors abdicated.Imagine twentieth-century Italy coming to terms with the fall of the Roman empire or Egypt with the last pharaoh abdicating in 1912. For China, the last century has been a period of transition - dramatic change and perpetual revolution.

~ Mark Kurlansky

Mark Kurlansky China Civilization Egypt Modernity Rome World History

In Rome it seems as if there were so many things which are more wanted in the world than pictures.

~ George Eliot

George Eliot Picture Rome Want

The student has his Rome, his whole glowing Italy, within the four walls of his library. He has in his books the ruins of an antique world and the glories of a modern one.

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Italy Library Rome Student

It was an inflexible maxim of Roman discipline that good soldier should dread his own officers far more than the enemy

~ Edward Gibbon

Edward Gibbon Discipline Gibbon Rome Soldier

It wasn’t easy looking dignified wearing a bed sheet and a purple cape.

~ Rick Riordan

Rick Riordan Blood Camp Greek Half Jackson Jupiter Neptune Percy Rome Son

When a man hath no freedom to fight for at home,Let him combat for that of his neighbours;Let him think of the glories of Greece and of Rome,And get knocked on the head for his labours.To do good to Mankind is the chivalrous plan,And is always as nobly requited;Then battle fro Freedom wherever you can,And, if not shot or hanged, you'll get knighted.

~ George Gordon Byron

George Gordon Byron Battle Byron Freedom Glory Greece Knight Lord Byron Rome

[H]e could see the island of Manhattan off to the left. The towers were jammed together so tightly, he could feel the mass and stupendous weight.Just think of the millions, from all over the globe, who yearned to be on that island, in those towers, in those narrow streets! There it was, the Rome, the Paris, the London of the twentieth century, the city of ambition, the dense magnetic rock, the irresistible destination of all those who insist on being where things are happening-and he was among the victors!

~ Tom Wolfe

Tom Wolfe 1980S Buildings Density Dreams Island Manhattan New York New York City Paris Power Rome Skyscrapers Towers Victor

...they were no more than steaks served up to portly politicians who controlled the personnel departments of the TV stations. (Showgirls in Italy)

~ Tobias Jones

Tobias Jones Hard Boiled Italy Rome Sexism

He doesn't need to tend her, because she hunts her own prey. He doesn't need to shield her, because she kills her own enemies. He doesn't need to look for her, because she's always at his side.

~ Kate Quinn

Kate Quinn Empress Feminist Rome

In Rome the statues, in Paris the paintings, and in Prague the buildings suggest that pleasure can be an education.

~ Caleb Crain

Caleb Crain Paris Prague Rome

At Rome thing can or cannot be done when you are told anything cannot be done, there is an end of it.It is much more convenient at Paris; when anything cannot be done you pay double and it is done directly

~ Alexandre Dumas

Alexandre Dumas Paris Rome

On the Italian side, we can trace the family back 2,000 years. I have a cousin in Rome, a famous archaeologist, Count Andrea Carandini, who was in Lombardy and came across some pottery with the original name of the family, Carandinus, painted on it.

~ Christopher Lee

Christopher Lee Family Name Rome

Citizens of Rome might boast that the claim of 'Civus romanus sum' set them apart from barbarians and slaves, and it was true up to a point, but Roman citizens lived in a society that accepted pain, cruelty, and torture as the norm, and in which there was no suggestion of equality at birth or mercy in the afterlife.

~ Michael Korda

Michael Korda Pain Society Rome

Rome has not seen a modern building in more than half a century. It is a city frozen in time.

~ Richard Meier

Richard Meier Time City Rome

Zaha Hadid's Maxxi Museum is proof that Rome and contemporary architecture are no longer a paradox. The building is characteristic Hadid - with curving lines and organic shapes - and the permanent collection already boasts works by Francesco Clemente, William Kentridge, and Gerhard Richter.

~ Amanda Hearst

Amanda Hearst Building Rome Museum

No white group has founded a major religion on this planet. The major religious were started in the Orient and the Middle East, not in Greece and Rome. I always knew you racists didn't have a prayer.

~ Jane Elliot

Jane Elliot Prayer Rome Group

The three most powerful and most apparent means used by Rome to retain her power over the minds of her votaries are Ignorance, Superstition, and Persecution.

~ Charles Spurgeon

Charles Spurgeon Powerful Ignorance Rome

Rome is the city of echoes, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning.

~ Giotto Di Bondone

Giotto Di Bondone City Rome Illusions

I graduated from Academy of Fashion and Costume Design in Rome. At first, I thought I was going to be a costume designer for films, and then I ended up working in fashion - not as a designer, but mostly as a model.

~ Isabella Rossellini

Isabella Rossellini Thought Fashion Rome

Humiliating events have a way of capturing the public's imagination. So it has been since antiquity, when gladiators were pitted against each other and the legions of Spartacus were crucified in endless rows on the way to Rome.

~ Gary Weiss

Gary Weiss Rome Events Way

When thou art at Rome, do as they do at Rome.

~ Miguel De Cervantes

Miguel De Cervantes Rome Thou Thou Art

Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what's going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate?

~ Will Rogers

Will Rogers Rome Now House