Herodotus Quotations | Page 2

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

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.

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

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.

Haste in every business brings failures.

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

A man trusts his ears less than his eyes.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

It is better to be envied than pitied.

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

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

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

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.

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