Herodotus Quotes

39 Sourced Quotes

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

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
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
Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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
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.

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

Herodotus
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.

Herodotus
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

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
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

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

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
Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.

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

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

Herodotus
Although he had plenty of troops he did not have many men.

Herodotus