Herodotus quotes

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

Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.

Men trust their ears less than their eyes.

Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.

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 good things together, just as there is no single country able to provide all good things for itself.

For of those [cities] that were great in earlier times, most of them have now become small, while those which were great in my time were small formerly.

Adversity has the effect of drawing out strength and qualities of a man that would have laid dormant in its absence.

the Egyptians were the first to discover the solar year, and to portion out its course into twelve parts both the space of time and the seasons which they delimit. It was observation of the course of the stars which led them to adopt this divisionIt is also the Egyptians who first bought into use the names of the twelve gods, which the Greeks adopted from them

In peace children inter their parents, war violates the order of nature and causes parents to inter their children.

A general curiosity about the unknown sparked by the multicultural milieu in which I spent my formative years. There was a lot of unknown back then, too. I dare say it was easier to be an explorer then.

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

When life is so burdensome death has become a sought after refuge.

The Lacedaemonians fought a memorable battle; they made it quite clear that they were the experts, and that they were fighting against amateurs.

All men's gains are the fruit of venturing.

The Persians are very fond of wine ... It is also their general practice to deliberate upon affairs of weight when they are drunk; and then in the morning, when they are sober, the decision to which they came the night before is put before them by the master of the house in which it was made; and if it is then approved they act on it; if not, they set it aside. Sometimes, however, they are sober at their first deliberations, but in this case they always reconsider the matter under the influence of wine.

A man trusts his ears less than his eyes.

Great things are won by great dangers.

History is marked by alternating movements across the imaginary line that separates East from West in Eurasia.

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 troubles were like would be glad to go home with his own.

The most hateful grief of all human griefs is to have knowledge of a truth, but no power over the event.

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

Illness strikes men when they are exposed to change.

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 that on the eve of battle, he was told by a native of Trachis that the Persian archers were so numerous that, their arrows would block out the sun. Dienekes, however, undaunted by this prospect, remarked with a laugh, 'Good. Then we will fight in the shade.

Those who are skilled in archery bend their bow only when they are preparing to use it; when they do not require it, they allow it to remain unbent, for otherwise it would remain unserviceable when the time for using it arrived. So it is with man. If he were to devote himself unceasingly to a dull round of business, without breaking the monotony by cheerful amusements, he would fall imperceptibly into idiocy, or be struck by paralysis

But if you know that you are a man too, and that even such are those that rule, learn this first of all: that all human affairs are a wheel which, as it turns, does not allow the same men always to be fortunate.

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

He is the best man who, when making his plans, fears and reflects on everything that can happen to him, but in the moment of action is bold.

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

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

The period of a [Persian] boy's education is between the ages of five and twenty, and he is taught three things only: to ride, to use the bow, and to speak the truth.

It [Egypt] has more wonders in it than any other country in the world and provides more works that defy description than any otherplace.

Where even a falsehood must be told, let it be told.

The king's might is greater than human, and his arm is very long.

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 is greater than the rest. They do not suffer pride in anyone but themselves.

For if one should propose to all men a choice, bidding them select the best customs from all the customs that there are, each race of men, after examining them all, would select those of his own people; thus all think that their own customs are by far the best

Historia (Inquiry); so that the actions of of people will not fade with time.

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 thought best, he would inevitably—after careful considerations of their relative merits—choose that of his own country. Everyone without exception believes his own native customs, and the religion he was brought up in, to be the best.

Civil strife is as much a greater evil than a concerted war effort as war itself is worse than peace.

The Andrians were the first of the islanders to refuse Themistocles' demand for money. He had put it to them that they would be unable to avoid paying, because the Athenians had the support of two powerful deities, one called Persuasion and the other Compulsion.The Andrians had replied that Athens was lucky to have two such useful gods, who were obviously responsible for her wealth and greatness; unfortunately, they themselves, in their small & inadequate land, had two utterly useless deities, who refused to leave the island and insisted on staying; and their names were Poverty and Inability.

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 the joints as perfect as they can, and inside this little tent they put a dish with red-hot stones in it. Then they take some hemp seed, creep into the tent, and throw the seed on to the hot stones. At once it begins to smoke, giving off a vapor unsurpassed by any vapor-bath one could find in Greece. The Sythians enjoy it so much that they howl with pleasure. This is their substitute for an ordinary bath in water, which they never use.

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

The man of affluence is not in fact more happy than the possessor of a bare competency, unless, in addition to his wealth, the end of his life be fortunate. We often see misery dwelling in the midst of splendour, whilst real happiness is found in humbler stations.

If one is sufficiently lavish with time, everything possible happens.

God does not suffer presumption in anyone but himself.

These 'messengers' will not be hindered from accomplishing at their best speed the distance which they have to go, either by snow, or rain, or heat, or by the darkness of night.

Soft men tend to be born from soft countries.

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

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

The sun will not shine on any country that has borders with ours.

Where wisdom is called for, force is of little use.

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 moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before.

It is better to be envied than pitied.

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

Calumny is a monstrous vice: for, where parties indulge in it, there are always two that are actively engaged in doing wrong, and one who is subject to injury. The calumniator inflicts wrong by slandering the absent; he who gives credit to the calumny before he has investigated the truth is equally implicated. The person traduced is doubly injured--first by him who propagates, and secondly by him who credits the calumny.

We have two useless gods who never leave our island, but like to dwell in it constantly, Poverty and Helplessness.

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

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]

Those who are guided by reason are generally successful in their plans; those who are rash and precipitate seldom enjoy the favour of the gods.

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

Mens fortunes are on a wheel, which in its turning suffers not the same man to prosper for ever.

Force has no place where there is need of skill.

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 designs.

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 road, each horse and man at the interval of a days journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed.

The worst pain a man can have is to know much and be impotent to act.

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.

A real friend ... exults in his friend’s happiness, rejoices in all his joys, and is ready to afford him the best advice.

Envy is so natural to human kind, that it cannot but arise.

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 the house where the discussion was held submits their decision for reconsideration when they are sober. If they still approve it, it is adopted; if not, it is abandoned. Conversely, any decision they make when they are sober, is reconsidered afterwards when they are drunk.

In soft regions are born soft men.

The Colchians, Ethiopians and Egyptians have thick lips, broad nose, woolly hair and they are burnt of skin.

The Scythians take kannabis seed, creep in under the felts, and throw it on the red-hot stones. It smolders and sends up such billows of steam-smoke that no Greek vapor bath can surpass it. The Scythians howl with joy in these vapor-baths, which serve them instead of bathing, for they never wash their bodies with water.

Let there be nothing untried; for nothing happens by itself, but men obtain all things by trying.

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

Bowmen bend their bows when they wish to shoot: unbrace them when the shooting is over. Were they kept always strung they would break and fail the archer in time of need. So it is with men. If they give themselves constantly to serious work, and never indulge awhile in pastime or sport, they lose their senses and become mad.

Haste in every business brings failures.

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 his revenues, by imposing a tax to be levied yearly. But everyone from whose part the river tore anything away, had to go to him to notify what had happened; he then sent overseers who had to measure out how much the land had become smaller, in order that the owner might pay on what was left, in proportion to the entire tax imposed. In this way, it appears to me, geometry originated, which passed thence to Hellas.

We are less convinced by what we hear than by what we see.

It is the gods' custom to bring low all things of surpassing greatness.

My men have become women, but the women men.

The ear is a less trustworthy witness than the eye.

Dreams in general take their rise from those incidents which have most occupied the thoughts during the day.

How can a monarchy be a suitable thing, which allows a man to do as he pleases with none to hold him to account. And even if you were to take the best man on earth, and put him into a monarchy, you put outside him the thoughts that usually guide him.

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

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

Of all possessions a friend is the most precious.

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

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

One man envies the success in life of another, and hates him in secret; nor is he willing to give him good advice when he is consulted, except it be by some wonderful effort of good feeling, and there are, alas, few such men in the world. A real friend, on the other hand, exults in his friend?s happiness, rejoices in all his joys, and is ready to afford him the best advice.

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 without knowing it.

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

In peace sons bury fathers, but war violates the order of nature, and fathers bury sons.

Before a man dies, hold back and call him not happy but lucky.

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 was the life they would wish to live.

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.

If you have two loaves of bread, keep one to nourish the body, but sell the other to buy hyacinths for the soul.

I know that human happiness never remains long in the same place.

Love of honor is a very shady sort of possession.

The secret of success is that it is not the absence of failure, but the absence of envy.

Far better it is to have a stout heart always and suffer one's share of evils, than to be ever fearing what may happen.

Chances rule men and not men chances.

Tell Greece that her spring has been taken out of her year.

The trials of living and the pangs of disease make even the short span of life too long.

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

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.

Not snow, no, nor rain, nor heat, nor night keeps them from accomplishing their appointed courses with all speed.

All of life is action and passion, and not to be involved in the actions and passions of your time is to risk having not really lived at all.

Egypt is the gift of the Nile.

Call no man happy before he dies.

Good masters generally have bad slaves, and bad slaves have good masters.

For as the body grows old, so the wits grow old and become blind towards all things alike.

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

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.

The wooden wall alone should remain unconquered.

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 which may have been brought forward.

A multitude of rulers is not a good thing. Let there be one ruler, one king.

The hastening of any undertaking begets error, from which great losses are wont to come.