Philo of Alexandria Quotes on Life
Philo of Alexandria was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who synthesized the Hebrew scriptures with Greek philosophical thought, especially Platonism and Stoicism. This page collects quotes attributed to Philo of Alexandria on the topic of life, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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Attributed to Philo of Alexandria:
“He who runs from God in the morning will have him for his companion before night.”
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“It would be a sign of great simplicity to think that the world was created in six days, or indeed at all in time; [...] Time is a thing posterior to the world. Therefore it would be correctly said that the world was not created in time, but that time had its existence in consequence of the world. For it is the motion of the heaven that has displayed the nature of time.”
Allegories of the Sacred Laws ( Legum allegoriae ), Book I, §2; tr. C. D. Yonge, The works of Philo Judaeus (1854), Vol. 1, pp. 52–53. -
“The holy Moses … discarded passion in general and detesting it, as most vile in itself and in its effects, denounced especially desire as a battery of destruction to the soul, which must be done away with or brought into obedience to the governance of reason, and then all things will be permeated through and through with peace and good order, those perfect forms of the good which bring the full perfection of happy living.”
75-77. -
“As parents in private life teach wisdom to their children, so do [poets] in public life to their cities.”
Every Good Man is Free | 143.