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“Of all men’s miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing.”
― Herodotus, The Histories

“It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half of the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen.”
― Herodotus, The Histories

“After all, no one is stupid enough to prefer war to peace; in peace sons bury their fathers and in war fathers bury their sons.”
― Herodotus

“The saddest aspect of life is that there is no one on earth whose happiness is such that he won't sometimes wish he were dead rather than alive.”
― Herodotus, The Histories

“If a man insisted on always being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.”
― Herodotus

“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, The Histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus

“The worst pain a man can suffer: to have insight into much and power over nothing.”
― Herodotus

“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”
― Herodotus, The Histories

“The most hateful grief of all human griefs is this, to have knowledge of the truth but no power over the event.”
― Herodotus

“If an important decision is to be made, they [the Persians] discuss the question when they are drunk, and the following day the master of the house where the discussion was held submits their decision for reconsideration when they are sober. If they still approve it, it is adopted; if not, it is abandoned. Conversely, any decision they make when they are sober, is reconsidered afterwards when they are drunk.”
― Herodotus

“Men trust their ears less than their eyes.”
― Herodotus

“Force has no place where there is need of skill”
― Herodotus, Historiae 1-4

“In peace, children inter their parents; war violates the order of nature and causes parents to inter their children.”
― Herodotus

“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.”
― Herodotus

“Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks”
― Herodotus

“Great wealth can make a man no happier than moderate means, unless he has the luck to continue in propsperity to the end. Many very rich men have been unfortunate, and many with a modest competence have had good luck. The former are better off than the latter in two respects only, whereas the poor but lucky man has the advantage in many ways; for though the rich have the means to satisfy their appetites and to bear calamities, and the poor have not, the poor, if they are lucky, are more likely to keep clear of trouble, and will have besides the blessings of a sound body, health, freedom from trouble, fine children, and good looks.

Now if a man thus favoured died as he has lived, he will be just the one you are looking for: the only sort of person who deserves to be called happy. But mark this: until he is dead, keep the word “happyâ€� in reserve. Till then, he is not happy, but only lucky.”
― Herodotus, The Histories

“They made it plain to everyone, however, and above all to the king himself, that although he had plenty of troops, he did not have many men.”
― Herodotus, The Histories

“When the rich give a party and the meal is finished, a man carries round amongst the guests a wooden image of a corpse in a coffin, carved and painted to look as much like the real thing as possible, and anything from 18 inches to 3 foot long; he shows it to each guest in turn, and says: "Look upon this body as you drink and enjoy yourself; for you will be just like it when you are dead."
[Herodotus ‘Historiesâ€�, II 82]”
― Herodotus, The Histories

“Now if a man thus favoured died as he has lived, he will be just the one you are looking for: the only sort of person who deserves to be called happy. But mark this: until he is dead, keep the word "happy" in reserve. Till then, he is not happy, but only lucky...”
― Herodotus

“human prosperity never abides long in the same place,”
― Herodotus, The Histories

“The longer the span of someone’s existence, the more certain he is to see and suffer much that he would rather have been spared.”
― Herodotus, The Histories

“What the History is really about lies behind this: man, giant-sized, seen against the background of the entire world, universalized in his conflict with destiny, the gods, and the cosmic order. The medium that is most fertile in showing the true nature of reality is the human mind, remembering, reflective, and fertile most of all when its memory and reflection are put at the service of its dreaming and fantastic side.”
― Herodotus, The History

“But he who neither thinks for himself nor learns from others, is a failure as a man.”
― Hesiod, Works and Days and Theogony

“From their eyelids as they glanced dripped love.”
― Hesiod

“No gossip ever dies away entirely, if many people voice it: It too is a kind of divinity.”
― Hesiod

“Often a whole community together suffers in consequence of a bad man who does wrong and contrives evil”
― Hesiod

“He is happy whom the Muses love. For though a man has sorrow and grief in his soul, yet when the servant of the Muses sings, at once he forgets his dark thoughts and remembers not his troubles. Such is the holy gift of the Muses to men.”
― Hesiod

“For here now is the age of iron. Never by daytime will there be an end to hard work and pain, nor in the night to weariness, when the gods will send anxieties to trouble us.”
― Hesiod, The Works and Days / Theogony / The Shield of Herakles

“Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man.”
― Homer, The Odyssey

“…There is the heat of Love, the pulsing rush of Longing, the lover’s whisper, irresistible—magic to make the sanest man go mad.”
― Homer, The Iliad