There is a quote going around on the internet that goes something like this:
“we do not rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training”
It was originally ascribed to an anonymous navy seal but many have stated that it comes from Archilochus the poet from Paros. I have been searching through some of the extent fragments of his work and can’t seem to find anything that resembles this quote.
Does anyone know any quotes by him that might be relevant to this quote that is ascribed to him…(did he say it)?
I’ve found nothing, but I did find this rather neat website, which includes shorter poems ascribed to Archilochus, Greek with accompanying English translations.
https://briefpoems.wordpress.com/tag/archilochus/
I’m always open to be surprised, but I can’t believe Archilochus could possibly have written anything like this sententious nonsense. Maybe it was Confucius. Or Einstein. Or maybe a fortune cookie.
I kinda suspect it is an internet rumor. It just sounds too modernish (I really don’t know what I mean by that, but I’ll call it a hunch).
I just wonder how Archilochus’ name got attached to this. Its probably just remotely similar to something someone said who’s name started with an ‘A’ and then “they” (the internet gremlins)thought Archilochus sounds like a cool name and he has a cool biography…and there you have it.
Also cool website find Barry! Thanks.
It just sounds too modernish
Exactly my reaction. The notion of “rising to our expectations” sounds like it comes out of the contemporary self-help industry.
“We cloak today’s banalities with the purple authority of the ancient past.”
“We cloak today’s banalities with the purple authority of the ancient past.”
No, that was John Lennon.
Damn, I think you’re right 
.