Herodotus

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Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Greek: Ἡροδοτος, Herodotos) (484 BC-ca. 425 BC) was a historian, known for his writings on the conflict between Greece and Persia, as well as the descriptions he wrote of different places and people he met on his travels.

1 Sourced
- 1.1 The Histories
2 Attributed
3 External links

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Sourced

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 day’s journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed.
- Herodotus, translation. A.D. Godley, vol. 4, bk. 8, v. 98, pp. 96–97 (1924).
- variant: Not snow, no, nor rain, nor heat, nor night keeps them from accomplishing their appointed courses with all speed. (Book 8, Ch. 98)
  - Paraphrase: "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" ”
    - Appears carved over entrance to Central Post Office building in New York City.

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The Histories

Men trust their ears less than their eyes.
- Book 1, Ch. 8

In peace, children inter their parents; war violates the order of nature and causes parents to inter their children.
- Book 1, Ch. 87

It was a kind of Cadmean victory
- Book 1, Ch. 166
- (Refering to a victory where both sides suffer extreme losses. Derived from the legends of Thebes, where the sons of Oedipus, and hence descendents of Cadmus, fought to the death.)

From great wrongdoing there are great punishments from the gods.
- Book 2, Ch. 120

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.
- Book 2, Ch. 173

It is better to be envied than pitied.
- Book 3, Ch. 52
- variant: How much better a thing it is to be envied than to be pitied.

Force has no place where there is need of skill.
- Book 3, Ch. 127

The Scythians take kannabis seed, creep in under the felts, and throw it on the red-hot stones. It smolders and sends up such billows of steam-smoke that no Greek vapor bath can surpass it. The Scythians howl with joy in these vapor-baths, which serve them instead of bathing, for they never wash their bodies with water.
- Book 4, Ch. 74

It is the gods' custom to bring low all things of surpassing greatness.
- Book 7 , Ch. 10

Haste in every business brings failures.
- Book 7, Ch. 10

When life is so burdensome death has become a sought after refuge.
- Book 7, Ch. 46

Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.
- Book 7, Ch. 49

Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.
- Book 7, Ch. 50

The king's might is greater than human, and his arm is very long.
- Book 8, Ch. 140

This is the bitterest pain among men, to have much knowledge but no power.
- Book 9, Ch. 16
- variant: Of all men's miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing.

In soft regions are born soft men.
- Book 9, Ch. 122

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Attributed

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

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

Some men 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.