Herodotus Quotes (59 Quotes)


    This I know - if all men should take their troubles to the market to barter with their neighbors, not one, when he had seen the troubles of other men, but would be glad to carry his own home again.

    Many exceedingly rich men are unhappy, but many middling circumstances are fortunate.

    Remember that with her clothes a woman puts off her modesty.

    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 overturn them utterly in the end.

    Force has no place where there is need of skill.


    The gods loves to punish whatever is greater than the rest.

    No one is fool enough to choose war instead of peace. For in peace sons bury fathers, but war violates the order of nature, and fathers bury sons.

    Of all possessions a friend is the most precious.

    The most hateful human misfortune is for a wise man to have no influence.

    Whatever comes from God is impossible for a man to turn back.

    I am bound to tell what I am told, but not in every case to believe it.

    The worst pain a man can suffer: to have insight into much and power over nothing.

    This is the bitterest pain among men, to have much knowledge but no power.

    A woman takes off her claim to respect along with her garments.

    The ears of men are lesser agents of belief than their eyes.

    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 U.S. Postal Service

    It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen.

    Circumstances rule men and not men circumstances.

    Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal; While others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before.

    Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.

    Haste in every business brings failure.

    As the old saw says well: every end does not appear together with its beginning.

    The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.

    Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.

    If someone were to put a proposition before men bidding them choose, after examination, the best customs in the world, each nation would certainly select its own.

    In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons.

    They the Persians are accustomed to deliberate on matters of the highest moment when warm with wine but whatever they in this situation may determine is again proposed to them on the morrow, in their cooler moments, by the person in whose house they had before assembled. If at this time also it meet their approbation, it is executed otherwise it is rejected. Whatever also they discuss when sober, is always a second time examined after they have been drinking.

    Soft men tend to be born from soft countries.

    Men trust their ears less than their eyes.

    Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.

    How much better a thing it is to be envied than to be pitied.

    A man calumniated is doubly injured - first by him who utters the calumny, and then by him who believes it.

    Of all men's miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing.

    I never yet feared those men who set a place apart in the middle of their cities where they gather to cheat one another and swear oaths which they break.

    Men trust their eyes less than their ears.

    It is clear that not in one thing alone, but in many ways equality and freedom of speech are a good thing.

    There is nothing more foolish, nothing more given to outrage than a useless mob.

    In soft regions are born soft men.

    When a woman removes her garment, she also removes the respect that is hers.

    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 nonetheless.

    Call no man happy before he dies.

    God does not suffer presumption in anyone but himself.

    Death is a delightful hiding place for weary men.

    Great things are won by great dangers.

    Do you see how the god always hurls his bolts at the greatest houses and the tallest trees. For he is wont to thwart whatever is greater than the rest.

    But I like not these great success of yours; for I know how jealous are the gods.

    To think well and to consent to obey someone giving good advice are the same thing.

    It is better to be envied than pitied.

    Illness strikes men when they are exposed to change.

    It is a law of nature that faint-hearted men should be the fruit of luxurious countries, for we never find that the same soil produces delicacies and heroes.


    More Herodotus Quotations (Based on Topics)


    Man - God - Night - War & Peace - Snow - Danger & Risk - Nature - Countries - Fathers - Wisdom & Knowledge - Sons - Planning - Woman - Time - Fool - Power - World - Fate & Destiny - Drinking - View All Herodotus Quotations

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