Herodotus Men Quotations

Men trust their ears less than their eyes.

All men's gains are the fruit of venturing.

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.

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

He is the best man who, when making his plans, fears and reflects on everything that can happen to him, but in the moment of action is bold.

Whatever comes from God is impossible for a man to turn back.

The most hateful human misfortune is for a wise man to have no influence.

Illness strikes men when they are exposed to change.

Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.

The ears of men are lesser agents of belief than their eyes.

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

I never yet feared those men who set a place apart in the middle of their cities where they gather to cheat one another and swear oaths which they break.

Many exceedingly rich men are unhappy, but many middling circumstances are fortunate.

Chances rule men and not men chances.

It is a law of nature that fainthearted men should be the fruit of luxurious countries, for we never find that the same soil produces delicacies and heroes.

For if one should propose to all men a choice, bidding them select the best customs from all the customs that there are, each race of men, after examining them all, would select those of his own people; thus all think that their own customs are by far the best

Call no man happy before he dies.

Bowmen bend their bows when they wish to shoot: unbrace them when the shooting is over. Were they kept always strung they would break and fail the archer in time of need. So it is with men. If they give themselves constantly to serious work, and never indulge awhile in pastime or sport, they lose their senses and become mad.

Soft men tend to be born from soft countries.

The worst pain a man can have is to know much and be impotent to act.

The worst part a man can suffer is to have insight into much and power over nothing.

But if you know that you are a man too, and that even such are those that rule, learn this first of all: that all human affairs are a wheel which, as it turns, does not allow the same men always to be fortunate.

My men have become women, but the women men.

Mens fortunes are on a wheel, which in its turning suffers not the same man to prosper for ever.

A man calumniated is doubly injured -- first by him who utters the calumny, and then by him who believes it.

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.

In soft regions are born soft men.

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

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.

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