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Famous quotes

Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide

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Said between 300 and 201 BC

• “Ναυηγοῦ τάφος εἰμί: σὺ δὲ πλέε: καὶ γὰρ ὅθ᾽ ἡμεῖς ὠλλύμεθ᾽, αἱ λοιπαὶ νῆες ἐποντοπόρουν.”

  Theodoridas of Syracuse (301–261 BC) said by 261 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Palatine Anthology, bk. 7, no. 282 (ed. W. R. Paton, vol. 2, 1917)

• “οἱ δὲ ποθεῦντες ἐν ἤματι γηράσκουσιν.”

  Theocritus (401–260 BC) said by 260 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: XII.2 (tr. A. S. F. Gow, 1952)

• “All men are my children. What I desire for my own children, and I desire their welfare and happiness both in this world and the next, that I desire for all men. You do not understand to what extent I desire this, and if some of you do understand, you do not understand the full extent of my desire.”

  Ashoka (304–232 BC) said by 232 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Δός αὐτῷ τριώβολον, ἐπειδὴ δεῖ αὐτῷ ἐξ ὧν μανθάνει κερδαίνειν.”

  Euclid (334–285 BC) said by 285 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The English translation is from The History of Greek Mathematics by Thomas Little Heath (1921), p. 357. The quote is recorded by Stobaeus, Florilegium, iv, 114 (ed. Teubner, 1856, p. 205; see also here). Stobaeus attrib…

  Also quoted by: Ευκλείδης (el)

• “Καλλίμαχος ὁ γραμματικὸς τὸ μέγα βιβλίον ἴσον ἔλεγεν εἶναι τῷ μεγάλῳ κακῷ.”

  Callimachus (306–240 BC) said by 240 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Fr. 465 (tr. S. Douglas Olson, 2007)

• “Weep not for me: suffering, as I do, unjustly, I am in a happier case than my murderers.”

  Agis IV (265–241 BC) said by 241 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: To one of his executioners, whom he noticed weeping, as quoted in Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1844) by WIlliam Smith, p. 73.

• “The Unseasonable man is one who will go up to a busy person, and open his heart to him. He will serenade his mistress when she has a fever. He will address himself to a man who has been cast in a surety-suit, and request him to become his security. He will come to give evidence when the trial is over.”

  Theophrastus (371–287 BC) said by 287 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Characters, ch. 9 (12); translation from R. C. Jebb and J. E. Sandys (trans.), The Characters of Theophrastus (London: Macmillan, 1909), p. 75.

• “Quae ego in theatro hic meis probavi plausibus Ea non audere quemquam regem rumpere, quanto libertatem hanc hic superat servitus.”

  Gnaeus Naevius (275–201 BC) said by 201 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: W. Y. Sellar, The Roman Poets of the Republic, 3rd ed. (1905), ch. 3, p. 57: note 20:

• “Et si domus pulchra sit, intelligamus eam dominis aedificatam esse, non muribus: sic igitur mundum deorum domum existimare debemus.”

  Chrysippus (281–208 BC) said by 208 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: SVF II 1011; Cicero, De Natura Deorum, III.25 (tr. Francis Brooks, 1896)

• “οὐ τοῖς γὰρ ὀμνύουσι τὸν φρονοῦντα δεῖ, τοῖς πράγμασιν δ᾿ αὐτοῖσι πιστεύειν ἀεί.”

  Alexis (372–270 BC) said by 270 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Frg. 165 K.-A. (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)

• “स्त्री का मिलना कठिन होता है ।”

  चाणक्य (375–283 BC) said by 283 BC at the latest wikiquote:hi, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The way of the ruler is to make certain that, if what a minister says beforehand does not tally with what he says later, or what he says later does not tally with what he has said previously, then although he may have fulfilled his task with distinction, he is condemned to certain punishment. This is what it means to hold your subordinates responsible.”

  Han Fei (280–233 BC) said by 233 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Facing South", in Han Feizi: Basic Writings (2003)

• “Proposition 10. The sun has to the moon a [volume] ratio greater than that which 5832 has to 1, but less than that which 8000 has to 1.”

  Aristarchus of Samos (310–230 BC) said by 230 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “τρυφᾶν γὰρ οὐκ ἠπίστασ᾿.”

  Menander (341–291 BC) said by 291 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “There is no disease so destructive as lust.”

  Chanakya (375–283 BC) said by 283 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “All the good are friends of one another.”

  Zeno of Citium (334–263 BC) said by 263 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “J. C. Rolfe, The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius, Vol. 3, LCL 195 (1928), pp. 366, 380”

  Laevius (151–201 BC) said by 201 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Αἱ δ᾽, ὥστ᾽ ἠμαθόεντος ἐπισχεδὸν αἰγιαλοῖο παρθενικαί, δίχα κόλπον ἐπ᾽ ἰξύας εἱλίξασαι σφαίρῃ ἀθύρουσιν περιηγέι· αἱ μὲν ἔπειτα ἄλλη ὑπ᾽ ἐξ ἄλλης δέχεται καὶ ἐς ἠέρα πέμπει ὕψι μεταχρονίην· ἡ δ᾽ οὔποτε πίλναται οὔδει· ὧς αἱ νῆα θέουσαν ἀμοιβαδὶς ἄλλοθεν ἄλλη πέμπε διηερίην ἐπὶ κύμασιν, αἰὲν ἄπωθεν πετράων.”

  Apollonius of Rhodes (295–215 BC) said by 215 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “天下共苦戰鬥不休，以有侯王。賴宗廟，天下初定，又復立國，是樹兵也，而求其寧息，豈不難哉！”

  Qin Shi Huang (259–210 BC) said by 210 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Εὐκαπὲς ἄγκιστρον, καὶ δούρατα δουλιχόεντα, χὠρμιήν, καὶ τὰς ἰχθυδόκους σπυρίδας, καὶ τοῦτον νηκτοῖσιν ἐπ᾽ ἰχθύσι τεχνασθέντα κύρτον, ἁλιπλάγκτων εὕρεμα δικτυβόλων, τρηχύν τε τριόδοντα, Ποσειδαώνιον ἔγχος, καὶ τοὺς ἐξ ἀκάτων διχθαδίους ἐρέτας, ὁ γριπεὺς Διόφαντος ἀνάκτορι θήκατο τέχνας, ὡς θέμις, ἀρχαίας λείψανα τεχνοσύνας.”

  Leonidas of Tarentum (320–260 BC) said by 260 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Anthologia Palatina, vi, 4, as translated by Herbert Kynaston, ed. E. D. Stone (1912), pp. 19–20

• “Ὀψὲ δὲ αὐτῷ γεωμετροῦντι λέγει τις, "εἶτα νῦν καιρός;" "εἶτα μηδὲ νῦν.”

  Lacydes of Cyrene (301–205 BC) said by 205 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Translated by C. D. Yonge (1853)

• “The great bird rises on the wind to a height of a thousand miles. What does it see from on high there in the blue? Is it droves of wild horses galloping? Is it primeval matter whirling in atomic dust? Is it the exhalations that give birth to all things? Is it the blue of the sky itself, or is it only the colour of infinite distance?”

  Zhuangzi (369–288 BC) said by 288 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Ch. 1 (tr. Anthony Watson-Gandy and Terence Gordon, from the French of René Grousset, 1952)

• “Mencius went to see King Huei of Liang. The king said, "Venerable sir, since you have not counted it far to come here, a distance of a thousand li, may I presume that you are provided with counsels to profit my kingdom?" Mencius replied, "Why must your Majesty use that word "profit"? What I am provided with, are counsels to benevolence and righteousness, and these are my only topics.”

  Mencius (372–289 BC) said by 289 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Book 1, part 1, as translated by James Legge in The Life and Works of Mencius (1875), p. 124<!--. Variant translation:

• “But we, the great, the valiant, and the wise, When once the seal of death has closed our eyes, Lost in the hollow tomb obscure and deep, Slumber, to wake no more, one long unbroken sleep!”

  Moschus (201–201 BC) said by 201 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source