Alexander the Great Quotations

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.

There is nothing impossible to him who will try.

I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well.

I had rather excel others in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and dominion.

Heaven cannot brook two suns, nor earth two masters.

Remember upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all.

A tomb now suffices him for whom the whole world was not sufficient.

I am dying from the treatment of too many physicians.

I would rather excel others in the knowledge of what is excellent than in the extent of my powers and dominion.

How great are the dangers I face to win a good name in Athens.

I am dying with the help of too many physicians.

At Achilles tomb, O fortunate youth, to have found Homer as the herald of your glory!

Shall I pass by and leave you lying there because of the expedition you led against Greece, or shall I set you up again because of your magnanimity and your virtues in other respects?

Do you not think it a matter worthy of lamentation that when there is such a vast multitude of them [worlds], we have not yet conquered one?

O Athenians, what toil do I undergo to please you!

I foresee a great funeral contest over me.

As for a limit to one’s labors, I, for one, do not recognize any for a high-minded man, except that the labors themselves should lead to noble accomplishments.

There are no more worlds to conquer!

I send you a kaffis of mustard seed, that you may taste and acknowledge the bitterness of my victory.

We of Macedon for generations past have been trained in the hard school of danger and war

There is something noble in hearing myself ill spoken of, when I am doing well;

Holy shadows of the dead, I'm not to blame for your cruel and bitter fate, but the accursed rivalry which brought sister nations and brother people, to fight one another. I do not feel happy for this victory of mine. On the contrary, I would be glad, brothers, if I had all of you standing here next to me, since we are united by the same language, the same blood and the same visions.

Sex and sleep alone make me conscious that I am mortal.

Your ancestors came to Macedonia and the rest of Hellas [Greece] and did us great harm, though we had done them no prior injury. I have been appointed leader of the Greeks, and wanting to punish the Persians I have come to Asia, which I took from you.

Are there no more worlds that I might conquer?

I consider not what Parmenio should receive, but what Alexander should give.

Are you still to learn that the end and perfection of our victories is to avoid the vices and infirmities of those whom we subdue?

On their side more men are standing, on ours more will fight!

There are so many worlds and I have not yet conquered even one.

My logisticians are a humorless lot ... they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay.

I do not steal victory.

I am involved in the land of a leonine and brave people, where every foot of the ground is like a well of steel, confronting my soldier. You have brought only one son into the world, but everyone in this land can be called an Alexander.

The end and object of conquest is to avoid doing the same thing as the conquered.

Now you fear punishment and beg for your lives, so I will let you free, if not for any other reason so that you can see the difference between a Greek king and a barbarian tyrant, so do not expect to suffer any harm from me. A king does not kill messengers.

God must have loved Afghans because he made them so beautiful.

But truly, if I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.

Toil and risk are the price of glory, but it is a lovely thing to live with courage and die leaving an everlasting fame.

Every light is not the sun.

Youths of the Pellaians and of the Macedonians and of the Hellenic Amphictiony and of the Lakedaimonians and of the Corinthians... and of all the Hellenic peoples, join your fellow-soldiers and entrust yourselves to me, so that we can move against the barbarians and liberate ourselves from the Persian bondage, for as Greeks we should not be slaves to barbarians.

With the right attitude, self imposed limitations vanish

In the end, when it's over, all that matters is what you've done.

May God keep you away from the venom of the cobra, the teeth of the tiger, and the revenge of the Afghans.

I would rather live a short life of glory than a long one of obscurity.

Let us conduct ourselves so that all men wish to be our friends and all fear to be our enemies.

Without Knowledge, Skill cannot be focused. Without Skill, Strength cannot be brought to bear and without Strength, Knowledge may not be applied.

Through every generation of the human race there has been a constant war, a war with fear. Those who have the courage to conquer it are made free and those who are conquered by it are made to suffer until they have the courage to defeat it, or death takes them.

True love never has a happy ending, because there is no ending to true love.

Bury my body and don't build any monument. Keep my hands out so the people know the one who won the world had nothing in hand when he died.

I am not afraid of a pack of lions being led by a sheep, but I am afriad of a pack of sheep led by a lion.