Know yourself. Nothing in excess. Give a pledge and ruin is near. These are the words inscribed on a stele just outside the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Stunning in their simplicity, these Maxims have survived the test of time. Even today, they cause the reader to pause and think about what such short, poignant phrases mean. For those who study Hellenic Polytheism, either in historical or modern religious context, the Delphic Maxims are of great import because they hold a key to understanding early Greek thought. Delving into both the history and the current application of 34 of the Maxims to the creation of personal ethics and morals, Allyson Szabo provides us with a path to personal growth and understanding of the world around us.

OVER 600 PHILOSOPHICAL ONE-LINERS, APHORISMS, MAXIMS | The contemporary version of MAXIMS by Duke de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims for Revolutionists by George Bernard Shaw and other such texts with modern concepts and language relevant to the 21st Century while maintaining timeless insights and suggestions. A book fit for any reader; from the geniuses to the masters, the creators, the professionals, the teachers, the workers, the plebs and even the knuckle-dragging pithecanthropoid droolers and mouth breathers. This book was written over a year or two and compiled patiently and scrupulously as new knowledge and perspectives were uncovered throughout a young man's spiritual and philosophical journey in the quest for insights and answers to life's deeper questions. Just as the great teachers of the past preferred to use proverbs and metaphor as a catalyst to evoke deeper thought and realisation, this book seeks to do the same. Such methods seem to encourage the reader to connect the dots for themselves and come to their own conclusions rather than being led to water like a donkey. If any ideas or concepts put forward in this book should offend you in any way... good! You should remember that offence is always taken, and never given. The reader is encouraged to be skeptical about the contents of this book and to challenge the positions held there in. Enjoy my ramblings.

Throughout his long, hectic and astonishingly varied life, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) would jot down his passing thoughts on theatre programmes, visiting cards, draft manuscripts and even bills ... Goethe was probably the last true ‘Renaissance Man’. Although employed as a Privy Councillor at the Duke of Weimar’s court, where he helped oversee major mining, road-building and irrigation projects, he also painted, directed plays, carried out research in anatomy, botany and optics – and still found time to produce masterpieces in every literary genre. His fourteen hundred Maxims and Reflections reveal some of his deepest thought on art, ethics, literature and natural science, but also his immediate reactions to books, chance encounters or his administrative work. Although variable in quality, the vast majority have a freshness and immediacy which vividly conjure up Goethe the man. They make an ideal introduction to one of the greatest of European writers.