Οὐ γνῶσις, ἀλλὰ ______.
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Οὐ γνῶσις, ἀλλὰ πρᾶξις.Καὶ ______ ποιῶν πρόσεχε.
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Καὶ καλὸν ποιῶν πρόσεχε.Εἰς ______ τοξεύεις.
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Εἰς οὐρανὸν τοξεύεις.Μέγα βιβλίον μέγα ______.
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Μέγα βιβλίον μέγα κακόν.Ἔνεστι κἀν ______ χολή.
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Ἔνεστι κἀν μύρμηκι χολή.Οὐ γνῶσις, ἀλλὰ πρᾶξις.
Not knowledge, but action.
For example, it's not enough to read a book about swimming; if you want to learn to swim, you need to get in the water and swim. The saying is adapted from Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: τὸ τέλος ἐστὶν οὐ γνῶσις ἀλλὰ πρᾶξις, "the goal is not knowledge, but action." The Greek word πρᾶξις has been adopted into English as praxis, and γνῶσις as gnosis.
Καὶ καλὸν ποιῶν πρόσεχε.
Even doing good, take care.
This saying reminds us that the outcomes of all actions are unforeseen: good deeds should lead to good outcomes, but be careful — you cannot take good outcomes for granted.
Εἰς οὐρανὸν τοξεύεις.
You're shooting an arrow at the sky.
This Greek saying appears as part of a delightful list of ἀδύνατα, "impossibilities," sometimes included as part of Plutarch's Moralia, and it also appears in the ancient Greek proverb collections. Of course, there is no way you can hit the sky with an arrow, so this is a fool's errand. Even worse, the arrow can fall back down and hit you. Compare the saying in the Biblical book of Ecclesiasticus: "If one cast a stone on high, it will fall upon his own head." Compare also a saying you saw in an earlier blog post: Εἰς οὐρανὸν πτύεις.
Μέγα βιβλίον μέγα κακόν.
A big book (is) a big evil.
So wrote the poet Callimachus, in defense of short poetry as opposed to epics. The adjective κακόν is being used substantively: an evil (thing).
So wrote the poet Callimachus, in defense of short poetry as opposed to epics. The adjective κακόν is being used substantively: an evil (thing).
Ἔνεστι κἀν μύρμηκι χολή.
There is bile even in the ant.
In other words, even though it is tiny, the ant has a temper! As Erasmus explains, the proverb warns that even a "small" enemy can be dangerous. The word κἀν is a contraction: καὶ ἐν (the breathing mark inside the word is a clue to the contraction). The bile, χολή, was one of the four humors of the body in Greek medicine: blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. The yellow bile was associated with anger, hence the English word choleric. You can find out more at Wikipedia: Four temperaments. The black bile, µέλαινα χολή, gave rise to melancholy.
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Οὐ γνῶσις, ἀλλὰ πρᾶξις.Καὶ ______ ποιῶν πρόσεχε.
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Καὶ καλὸν ποιῶν πρόσεχε.Εἰς ______ τοξεύεις.
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Εἰς οὐρανὸν τοξεύεις.Μέγα βιβλίον μέγα ______.
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Μέγα βιβλίον μέγα κακόν.Ἔνεστι κἀν ______ χολή.
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Ἔνεστι κἀν μύρμηκι χολή.
And to finish up, here's a random proverb and a random LOLCat too:
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