“Civil strife is as much a greater evil than a concerted war effort as war itself is worse than peace.”

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.

Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.

It [Egypt] has more wonders in it than any other country in the world and provides more works that defy description than any otherplace.

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

Love of honor is a very shady sort of possession.

Haste in every business brings failures.

The wooden wall alone should remain unconquered.

As the old saw says well: every end does not appear together with its beginning.

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

It is better to be envied than pitied.

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

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.

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

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

In soft regions are born soft men.