Gemistus Pletho Quotes
George Gemistos, who took the name Plethon to recall his master Plato, was a late-Byzantine philosopher of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the most original Platonist of the Greek-speaking world on the eve of the fall of Constantinople. His Book of Laws, condemned and partially burned after his death, projected a comprehensive Platonist political and religious order for a renewed Greek state, organized around the worship of the ancient Olympian gods reinterpreted as Platonic divine principles. The quotes below are attributed to Gemistus Pletho, organized by topic.
Gemistus Pletho on God
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Attributed to Gemistus Pletho:
“The gods are the names by which the One is differentiated for our understanding.”
Gemistus Pletho on Knowledge
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Attributed to Gemistus Pletho:
“Plato should be set above Aristotle; the master is greater than the pupil.”
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“Ἐσμὲν γὰρ οὖν... Ἕλληνες τὸ γένος, ὡς ἥ τε φωνὴ καὶ ἡ πάτριος παιδεία μαρτυρεῖ.”
We are Hellenes by race and culture. | Steven Runciman , The Great Church in Captivity (Cambridge UP, 1968) p. 122. Dieter Reinsch , "Η θεώρηση της πολιτικής και πολιτιστικής φυσιογνωμίας των Ελλήνων στους ιστορικούς της Άλωσης", in Études Balkaniques , Vol. 6: Byzance et l'hellénisme: l'identité grecque au Moyen Âge (Association Pierre Belon, 1999) p. 74 -
“We are Hellenes by race and culture.”
Ἐσμὲν γὰρ οὖν... Ἕλληνες τὸ γένος, ὡς ἥ τε φωνὴ καὶ ἡ πάτριος παιδεία μαρτυρεῖ. -
“Steven Runciman , The Great Church in Captivity (Cambridge UP, 1968) p. 122. Dieter Reinsch , "Η θεώρηση της πολιτικής και πολιτιστικής φυσιογνωμίας των Ελλήνων στους ιστορικούς της Άλωσης", in Études Balkaniques , Vol. 6: Byzance et l'hellénisme: l'identité grecque au Moyen Âge (Association Pierre Belon, 1999) p. 74”
Ἐσμὲν γὰρ οὖν... Ἕλληνες τὸ γένος, ὡς ἥ τε φωνὴ καὶ ἡ πάτριος παιδεία μαρτυρεῖ.
Gemistus Pletho on Politics
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Attributed to Gemistus Pletho:
“Religion, philosophy, and law belong to a single rational order, or to none.”
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Attributed to Gemistus Pletho:
“A people that has lost its philosophical memory has lost the means of its political renewal.”
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Attributed to Gemistus Pletho:
“Constantinople may yet be saved by the same wisdom by which Athens once was great.”