Oracle
in classical antiquity, person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future
In Classical Antiquity, an oracle was a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods. As such it is a form of divination.
Quotes edit
- The oracle-glass was maddeningly literal, capable of answering only the question one asked, rather than that which one wanted answered.
- Michael Swanwick, King Dragon (2003). Reprinted in David G. Hartwell (ed.), Year’s Best Fantasy 4 (p. 6)
Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations edit
- Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 572.
- Ibis redibis non morieris in bello.
- Thou shalt go thou shalt return never in battle shalt thou perish.
- Utterance of the Oracle which through absence of punctuation and position of word "non" may be interpreted favorably or the reverse.
- A Delphic sword.
- Aristotle, Politica, I, 2 (referring to the ambiguous Delphic Oracles).
- The oracles are dumb,
No voice or hideous hum
Runs thro' the arched roof in words deceiving.- John Milton, Hymn on Christ's Nativity, line 173.
- I am Sir Oracle,
And when I ope my lips let no dog bark!- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice (late 1590s), Act I, scene 1, line 93.
