Herodotus Quotes

95 quotes in 1125 categories

• It is better to be envied than pitied.
• Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. [The Motto Of The…
• But I like not these great successes of yours; for I know how jealous are the gods.
• If anyone, no matter who, were given the opportunity of choosing from amongst all the nations in the world the set of beliefs which he…
• But this I know: if all mankind were to take their troubles to market with the idea of exchanging them, anyone seeing what his neighbor's…
• Historia (Inquiry); so that the actions of of people will not fade with time.
• If an important decision is to be made, they [the Persians] discuss the question when they are drunk, and the following day the master of…
• Force has no place where there is need of skill
• Happiness is not fame or riches or heroic virtues, but a state that will inspire posterity to think in reflecting upon our life, that it…
• It is the greatest and the tallest of trees that the gods bring low with bolts and thunder. For the gods love to thwart whatever…
• Although extraordinary valor was displayed by the entire corps of Spartans and Thespians, yet bravest of all was declared the Spartan Dienekes. It is said…
• It is sound planning that invariably earns us the outcome we want; without it, even the gods are unlikely to look with favour on our…
• Many exceedingly rich men are unhappy, but many middling circumstances are fortunate.
• Civil strife is as much a greater evil than a concerted war effort as war itself is worse than peace.
• The man who has planned badly, if fortune is on his side, may have had a stroke of luck; but his plan was a bad…
• One should always look to the end of everything, how it will finally come out. For the god has shown blessedness to many only to…
• The gods loves to punish whatever is greater than the rest.
• Of all possessions a friend is the most precious.
• For as the body grows old, so the wits grow old and become blind towards all things alike.
• As the old saw says well: every end does not appear together with its beginning. It's impossible for someone who is human to have all…

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