John Pentland Mahaffy

thumb|With Alexander the stage of Greek influence spread across the world. Sir John Pentland Mahaffy (26 February 1839 – 30 April 1919) was an Irish classical scholar. Quotes If ... we meet a man of acknowledged mental superiority, whether generally or in his special department, it is our social duty by intelligent questioning, by an anxiety to learn from him, to force him to condescend to our ignorance, or join in our fun, till his broader sympathies are awakened, and he plays with us as if we were children. Indeed this very metaphor points out one of the very remarkable instances of social equality asserted by an inferior—I mean the outspoken freedom of the child—which possesses a peculiar charm, and often thaws the dignity or dissipates the reserve of the great man and woman whose superiority is a perpetual obstacle to them in ordinary society. Conversation (1896), p. 104 With Alexander the stage of Greek influence spread across the world. Alexander's Empire, p. 8 In Ireland the inevitable never happens and the unexpected constantly occurs. quoted in W. B. Stanford and R. B. McDowell Mahaffy (1971) External links Category:Historians from Ireland Category:1839 births Category:1919 deaths Category:Academics from Ireland Category:Polymaths