Herodotus Quotes
-
Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
A multitude of rulers is not a good thing. Let there be one ruler, one king.
-
The most hateful human misfortune is for a wise man to have no influence.
-
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.
-
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 secret of success is that it is not the absence of failure, but the absence of envy.
-
Mens fortunes are on a wheel, which in its turning suffers not the same man to prosper for ever.
-
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.
-
If one is sufficiently lavish with time, everything possible happens.
-
The gods loves to punish whatever is greater than the rest.
-
We are less convinced by what we hear than by what we see.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Where even a falsehood must be told, let it be told.
-
Call no man happy before he dies.
-
The ear is a less trustworthy witness than the eye.
-
Not snow, no, nor rain, nor heat, nor night keeps them from accomplishing their appointed courses with all speed.
-
Before a man dies, hold back and call him not happy but lucky.
-
In peace children inter their parents, war violates the order of nature and causes parents to inter their children.
-
The Lacedaemonians fought a memorable battle; they made it quite clear that they were the experts, and that they were fighting against amateurs.
-
When life is so burdensome death has become a sought after refuge.