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.
HERODOTUSIt 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.
More Herodotus Quotes
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Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.
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The most hateful grief of all human griefs is to have knowledge of a truth, but no power over the event.
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The worst part a man can suffer is to have insight into much and power over nothing.
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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.
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A multitude of rulers is not a good thing. Let there be one ruler, one king.
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How much better a thing it is to be envied than to be pitied.
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Where even a falsehood must be told, let it be told.
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The Colchians, Ethiopians and Egyptians have thick lips, broad nose, woolly hair and they are burnt of skin.
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It is the gods’ custom to bring low all things of surpassing greatness.
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Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.
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Men trust their ears less than their eyes.
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The most hateful human misfortune is for a wise man to have no influence.
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Dreams in general take their rise from those incidents which have most occupied the thoughts during the day.
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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.
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Before a man dies, hold back and call him not happy but lucky.
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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.
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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.
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It is clear that not in one thing alone, but in many ways equality and freedom of speech are a good thing.
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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.
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All men’s gains are the fruit of venturing.
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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
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It [Egypt] has more wonders in it than any other country in the world and provides more works that defy description than any otherplace.
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We have two useless gods who never leave our island, but like to dwell in it constantly, Poverty and Helplessness.
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I am bound to tell what I am told, but not in every case to believe it.
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Civil strife is as much a greater evil than a concerted war effort as war itself is worse than peace.
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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.
HERODOTUS