8 Pillars of Greek Wisdom

1st Pillar
Humanism-Be proud of your human abilities and believe in your
capacity to achieve great things (Graphic Organizer)
Humanism is the proud statement of both our promise and
our duty. Because of the pride they felt in being human, the
Greeks celebrated human originality with all of their talent
and might in pictures and stories. With a kind of poetic
justice, those celebratory acts gave their race the immortality
nature denied it. Greek literature and art live on, battered by
time but indomitable and still defiant. Among all these works
the common denominator is our species tale-the struggle
against great odds

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8 Pillars of Greek Wisdom

2nd Pillar
The Pursuit of Excellence-Try to be more today than you were
yesterday; more tomorrow than you were today (Graphic
Organizer)
To be sure we cannot all be winners, but neither were the
Greeks. We may not throw the discus the farthest or write a
prize-winning play. But that is not what life asks of us.
Instead, it asks us to discover those things we are capable of
doing well, and then to do them with all our heart and soul.
To be a hero, to pursue excellence, is to be a loving mother,
to be a compassionate husband, to do our job well-whatever
it may be-with honor, integrity, and passion.

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8 Pillars of Greek Wisdom

3rd Pillar
The Practice of Moderation-Beware of going to extremes, because
in them lies danger (Graphic Organizer)
The Greeks tell us: first find the extremes; once you find the
extremes, its easy to find the middle. In effect, what works
for measuring a wall or a piece of paper can work for
gauging behavior.
Stop and reflect. What do you do too much of? Eat? Work?
Sleep? Nothing? Where do you overdo it, hurting yourself
and others in the process?...Compared to a life of exciting
excess, practicing moderation may seem dreadfully dull. But
the ancient Greeks werent trying to sell a life of boredom.
All they were doing was warning us that if we go too far in
one direction, we may pay a high price. But for emotional
beings like us, moderation goes against the grain (not usual).
Instead of steady common sense, we prefer the quick fix

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8 Pillars of Greek Wisdom

4th Pillar
Self-Knowledge-Identify and understand your weaknesses and
strengths (Graphic Organizer)
The fourth pillar of Greek wisdom is self-knowledge. Selfknowledge is needed in order to choose wisely between the
pursuit of excellence and the practice of moderation. Only
through an assessment of our person al strengths and
weaknesses can we know when it is time to press boldly
ahead or pull back. It is for this reason that this principle was
the second to be carved over the entranceway to Apollos
temple at Delphi. There for all to read were the words Know
Thyself. The search for self-knowledge requires that we
identify our personal strengths and weaknesses. Only by so
doing can we truly take measure of who we are, and who we
can become. From an acknowledgement of our strengths can
come the resolve to excel; from a recognition of our
weaknesses can come the good sense to avoid extremes.

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8 Pillars of Greek Wisdom

5th Pillar
Rationalism-Search for the truth by using the power of your mind
(Graphic Organizer)
The fifth pillar of Greek wisdom is rationalism. Rationalism
means the use of reason. Unlike rationalization, which uses
reason to explain behavior, rationalism employs
uncompromising logic to discover the truth. To the ancient
Greeks, rationalism was the primary means of gaining selfknowledge. Rather than waiting for enlightenment to come
from divine revelation, the Greeks turned to an illuminating
instrument closer at hand, the power of human intelligence.
The ancient Greeks clearly saw that we are not totally
rational creatures, but are in fact driven by emotional needs
and appetites. They were the first in world history to view
life as a battleground between reason and emotion. Yet if we
are captives of our emotions, we are not in full control over
our lives. How, then, can we gain such control? We must
employ the power of reason to solve those problemswhile
acknowledging that reason has its limits and cannot solve all
problems. Many problems cannot be addressed in the human
brain; they can only be handled by the human heart.

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8 Pillars of Greek Wisdom

6th Pillar
Restless Curiosity-Seek to know what things really are, not merely
what they seem to be (Graphic Organizer)
Restless curiosity, the sixth pillar of Greek wisdom, is the
compulsive desire to know the truth. The capacity to be
rational is worthless, the Greeks believed, unless we use it to
generate courageous questions about ourselves and our
world.

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8 Pillars of Greek Wisdom
7th Pillar
The Love of Freedom-Only if we are free can we find fulfillment
(Graphic Organizer)

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8 Pillars of Greek Wisdom
8th Pillar
Individualism-Take pride in who you are as a unique individual
(Graphic Organizer)
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