Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotuswas a Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Cariaand lived in the fifth century BC, a contemporary of Socrates. He is widely referred to as "The Father of History"; he was the first historian known to have broken from Homeric tradition to treat historical subjects as a method of investigation—specifically, by collecting his materials systematically and critically, and then arranging them into a historiographic narrative. The Histories is the only work which he is known to have produced, a record...
NationalityGreek
ProfessionHistorian
rain night snow
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]
envy envied
How much better a thing it is to be envied than to be pitied.
kings science order
This king [Sesostris] divided the land among all Egyptians so as to give each one a quadrangle of equal size and to draw from each his revenues, by imposing a tax to be levied yearly. But everyone from whose part the river tore anything away, had to go to him to notify what had happened; he then sent overseers who had to measure out how much the land had become smaller, in order that the owner might pay on what was left, in proportion to the entire tax imposed. In this way, it appears to me, geometry originated, which passed thence to Hellas.
pain knowledge men
The worst pain a man can have is to know much and be impotent to act.
thinking reflecting-upon inspire
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.
pride tree suffering
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.
body blind wit
For as the body grows old, so the wits grow old and become blind towards all things alike.
precious-possessions possession precious-friends
Of all possessions a friend is the most precious.
god-love greater
The gods loves to punish whatever is greater than the rest.
looks should ends
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.
men luck may
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.
war evil effort
Civil strife is as much a greater evil than a concerted war effort as war itself is worse than peace.
men unhappy rich
Many exceedingly rich men are unhappy, but many middling circumstances are fortunate.
design looks want
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.