100 Quotes by Herodotus
Herodotus, often referred to as the "Father of History," pioneered the art of historical inquiry and narrative. His monumental work, "Histories," explored the Greco-Persian Wars and the cultures of the ancient world, intertwining historical accounts with captivating anecdotes and observations about the customs and lives of various peoples. While his approach occasionally blurred the line between history and myth, Herodotus' contributions laid the groundwork for critical historiography. His emphasis on investigating multiple sources and presenting diverse viewpoints became a cornerstone of modern historical methodology. Herodotus' narrative style, blending storytelling with historical analysis, not only preserved the events of his time but also demonstrated the power of history to illuminate the shared human experience across time and cultures.
Herodotus Quotes
Men trust their ears less than their eyes. (Meaning)
Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks. (Quote Meaning)
In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons. (Meaning)
Of all possessions a friend is the most precious. (Quote Meaning)
I know that human happiness never remains long in the same place. (Meaning)
No one is fool enough to choose war instead of peace. (Quote Meaning)
Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. (Meaning)
Haste in every business brings failures. (Quote Meaning)
Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal. (Meaning)
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. (Quote Meaning)
Illness strikes men when they are exposed to change. (Meaning)
Not snow, no, nor rain, nor heat, nor night keeps them from accomplishing their appointed courses with all speed. (Quote Meaning)
Adversity has the effect of drawing out strength and qualities of a man that would have lain dormant in its absence. (Meaning)
All men's gains are the fruit of venturing. (Quote Meaning)
The most hateful grief of all human griefs is to have knowledge of the truth but no power over the event. (Meaning)
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. (Quote Meaning)
It is clear that not in one thing alone, but in many ways equality and freedom of speech are a good thing. (Meaning)
It is better to be envied than pitied. (Quote Meaning)
Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances. (Meaning)
Force has no place where there is need of skill. (Quote Meaning)
Call no man happy before he dies. (Meaning)
In soft regions are born soft men. (Quote Meaning)
My men have become women, but the women men. (Meaning)
The wooden wall alone should remain unconquered. (Quote Meaning)
Egypt is the gift of the Nile. (Meaning)
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.
The secret of success is that it is not the absence of failure, but the absence of envy.
Men trust their ears less than their eyes.
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.
Egypt is the gift of the Nile.
Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.
Where wisdom is called for, force is of little use.
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
It is better to be envied than pitied.
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.
The most hateful grief of all human griefs is to have knowledge of a truth, but no power over the event.
Haste in every business brings failures.
If you have two loaves of bread, keep one to nourish the body, but sell the other to buy hyacinths for the soul.
Whatever comes from God is impossible for a man to turn back.
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 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.
Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.
Of all possessions a friend is the most precious.
All men's gains are the fruit of venturing.
Envy is so natural to human kind, that it cannot but arise.
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.
Let there be nothing untried; for nothing happens by itself, but men obtain all things by trying.
Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.
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.
The most hateful human misfortune is for a wise man to have no influence.
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.
Illness strikes men when they are exposed to change.
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.
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 other place.
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.
There is nothing more foolish, nothing more given to outrage than a useless mob.
We are less convinced by what we hear than by what we see.
I know that human happiness never remains long in the same place.
The worst part a man can suffer is to have insight into much and power over nothing.
In soft regions are born soft men.
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.
The Colchians, Ethiopians and Egyptians have thick lips, broad nose, woolly hair and they are burnt of skin.
Great things are won by great dangers.
Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.
God does not suffer presumption in anyone but himself.
A multitude of rulers is not a good thing. Let there be one ruler, one king.
A man trusts his ears less than his eyes.
When a woman removes her garment, she also removes the respect that is hers.
The worst pain a man can have is to know much and be impotent to act.
It is the gods' custom to bring low all things of surpassing greatness.
To think well and to consent to obey someone giving good advice are the same thing.
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.
If one is sufficiently lavish with time, everything possible happens.
When life is so burdensome death has become a sought after refuge.
The sun will not shine on any country that has borders with ours.
A woman takes off her claim to respect along with her garments.
A man calumniated is doubly injured -- first by him who utters the calumny, and then by him who believes it.
Remember that with her clothes a woman puts off her modesty.
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
History is marked by alternating movements across the imaginary line that separates East from West in Eurasia.
Good masters generally have bad slaves, and bad slaves have good masters.
How much better a thing it is to be envied than to be pitied.
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 real friend exults in his friend's happiness, rejoices in all his joys, and is ready to afford him the best advice.
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.
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.
The trials of living and the pangs of disease make even the short span of life too long.
For as the body grows old, so the wits grow old and become blind towards all things alike.
I am bound to tell what I am told, but not in every case to believe it.
As the old saw says well: every end does not appear together with its beginning.
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 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.
Civil strife is as much a greater evil than a concerted war effort as war itself is worse than peace.
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.
It is clear that not in one thing alone, but in many ways equality and freedom of speech are a good thing.
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.
The wooden wall alone should remain unconquered.
Before a man dies, hold back and call him not happy but lucky.
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.
Men's fortunes are on a wheel, which in its turning suffers not the same man to prosper for ever.
The hastening of any undertaking begets error, from which great losses are wont to come.
In peace children inter their parents, war violates the order of nature and causes parents to inter their children.
The ears of men are lesser agents of belief than their eyes.
Dreams in general take their rise from those incidents which have most occupied the thoughts during the day.
Love of honor is a very shady sort of possession.
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.
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.
Chances rule men and not men chances.
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.
Not snow, no, nor rain, nor heat, nor night keeps them from accomplishing their appointed courses with all speed.
Force has no place where there is need of skill.
But I like not these great successes of yours; for I know how jealous are the gods.
Call no man happy before he dies.
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.
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.
We have two useless gods who never leave our island, but like to dwell in it constantly, Poverty and Helplessness.
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.
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.
The gods loves to punish whatever is greater than the rest.
Soft men tend to be born from soft countries.
The ear is a less trustworthy witness than the eye.
Where even a falsehood must be told, let it be told.
My men have become women, but the women men.
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 division. It is also the Egyptians who first bought into use the names of the twelve gods, which the Greeks adopted from them
Many exceedingly rich men are unhappy, but many middling circumstances are fortunate.
The king's might is greater than human, and his arm is very long.
The Lacedaemonians fought a memorable battle; they made it quite clear that they were the experts, and that they were fighting against amateurs.
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.
― Herodotus Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
