Herodotus Quotations

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

Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.

Men trust their ears less than their eyes.

Of all possessions a friend is the most precious.

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

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.

All men's gains are the fruit of venturing.

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.

Death is a delightful hiding place for weary men.

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

Force has no place where there is need of skill

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

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.

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

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.

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

Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give lustre, and many more people see than weigh.

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

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.

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.

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

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

God does not suffer presumption in anyone but himself.

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

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.

Illness strikes men when they are exposed to change.

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.

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

Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.

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

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

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.

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.

The destiny of man is in his own soul.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

It is better to be envied than pitied.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

A man trusts his ears less than his eyes.

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

Haste in every business brings failures.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

In soft regions are born soft men.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

My men have become women, but the women men.

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

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.

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

The wooden wall alone should remain unconquered.

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

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.

Love of honor is a very shady sort of possession.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.