Herodotus Quotes

95 quotes in 1125 categories

• In peace sons bury fathers, but war violates the order of nature, and fathers bury sons.
• This king [Sesostris] divided the land among all Egyptians so as to give each one a quadrangle of equal size and to draw from each…
• Men trust their ears less than their eyes.
• Illness strikes men when they are exposed to change.
• Some give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal; while others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last…
• The worst part a man can suffer is to have insight into much and power over nothing.
• Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.
• Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.
• The worst pain a man can have is to know much and be impotent to act.
• If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable…
• Haste in every business brings failures.
• In peace children inter their parents, war violates the order of nature and causes parents to inter their children.
• The most hateful grief of all human griefs is to have knowledge of a truth, but no power over the event.
• All men's gains are the fruit of venturing.
• And now for the vapor-bath: on a framework of three sticks, meeting at the top, they stretch pieces of woolen cloth, taking care to get…
• A woman takes off her claim to respect along with her garments.
• Unless a variety of opinions are laid before us, we have no opportunity of selection, but are bound of necessity to adopt the particular view…
• It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the…
• Whatever comes from God is impossible for a man to turn back.
• How much better a thing it is to be envied than to be pitied.

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