Herodotus Quotes

39 Sourced Quotes

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

Herodotus
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

Herodotus
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.

Herodotus
Men trust their ears less than their eyes.

Herodotus
Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.

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

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

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

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

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

Herodotus
For great wrongdoing there are great punishments from the gods.

Herodotus
The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

Herodotus
In peace sons bury their fathers and in war fathers bury their sons. However, I suppose the god must have wanted this to happen.

Herodotus
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.

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

Herodotus
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.

Herodotus
Force has no place where there is need of skill.

Herodotus
[The Persians] are accustomed to deliberate about the most important matters when they are drunk.

Herodotus
It is said that the phoenix comes when his father dies. If the picture truly shows his size and appearance, his plumage is partly golden and partly red. He is most like an eagle in shape and bigness.

Herodotus
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.

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

Herodotus
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.

Herodotus
It is well to bear in mind that chances rule men, and not men chances.

Herodotus
I am going to talk at some length about Egypt, because it has very many remarkable features and has produced more monuments which beggar description than anywhere else in the world.

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

Herodotus