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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 400 and 301 BC

• “The Cimmerians inhabit subterranean dwellings, which they call argillas.”

  Ephorus (400–330 BC) said by 330 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Quoted in Strabo, v, p. 375; reported in Jules Michelet, History of France, tr. G. H. Smith (New York, 1882), vol. i, p. 35

• “Δημοσθένης ἐμὲ βούλεται διορθοῦν, ἡ ὗς τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν.”

  Demades (381–317 BC) said by 317 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: In Plutarch, Moralia, Praecepta gerendae reipublicae (tr. H. N. Fowler, 1936). Plutarch also quotes Demosthenes' reply, "Yes, your Athena was caught in adultery last year!" Cited by Erasmus, Adagia, 1, 1, 40: Tritissimu…

• “Let thy speech be better than silence, or be silent.”

  Dionysius I of Syracuse (431–367 BC) said by 367 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Frag. 6, as quoted in Handy-book of Literary Curiosities (1892) by William Shepard Walsh, p. 1009.

  Also quoted by: Dionysius The Elder

• “ὁ μηθὲν ἀδικῶν οὐθενὸς δεῖται νόμου.”

  Antiphanes (408–334 BC) said by 334 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Frg. 281 K.-A. (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)

• “Fragment 3. The harmony is generally the result of contraries; for it is the unity of multiplicity, and the agreement of discordances. (Nicom.Arith.2:509).”

  Philolaus (470–390 BC) said by 390 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Ἑρμᾶς τᾶιδ᾽ ἕστακα παρ᾽ ὄρχατον ἠνεμόεντα ἐν τριόδοις πολιᾶς ἐγγύθεν ἀιόνος,ἀνράσι κεκμηῶσιν ἔχων ἄμπαυσιν ὁδοῖο· ψυχρὸν δ᾽ ἀχραὲς κράνα ὑποπροχέει.”

  Anyte of Tegea (died 301 BC) said by 301 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Anthologia Palatina, ix, 314, as translated by J. R. Rodd, Love, Worship and Death (1916), "The God of the Cross-Roads

• “The Spartans do not ask how many the enemies are but where they are.”

  Agis II (470–398 BC) said by 398 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “He who has lived as a true philosopher has reason to be of good cheer when he is about to die, and that after death he may hope to receive the greatest good in the other world.”

  Socrates (470–399 BC) said by 399 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Time is that wherein there is opportunity, and opportunity is that wherein there is no great time. Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity. However, knowing this, one must attend to medical practice not primarily to plausible theories, but to experience combined with reason. For a theory is a composite memory of things apprehended with sense perception.”

  Hippocrates (460–370 BC) said by 370 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Precepts, Ch. 1, as translated by W. H. S. Jones (1923).

• “Beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may.”

  Plato (429–349 BC) said by 349 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Ὁ Πανταλέων μὲν αὐτὸς αὐτοὺς τοὺς ξένους τούς τ᾿ ἀγνοοῦντας αὐτὸν ἐπλάνα, καὶ σχεδὸν ἀπεκραιπάλα τὰ πλεῖστα τοῦ γελάσαι χάριν, ἰδίαν τιν᾿ αὑτῷ θέμενος ἀδολεσχίαν.”

  Theognetus (301–301 BC) said by 301 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Φιλοδέσποτος (The One Who Loves His Master), in Athenaeus, bk. 14, sec. 5 (tr. C. D. Yonge, 1854)

• “δεῖ [. . .] τὸ βέλιστον ἀεί, μὴ τὸ ῥᾷστον ἅπαντας λέγειν.”

  Demosthenes (384–322 BC) said by 322 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: VIII.72 (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)

• “When asked what good the laws of Lycurgus had brought to Sparta, he replied, “Contempt of pleasure;” and in answer to the question how he acquired his great reputation for bravery, “By contemning death.” Agis II made the same answer when asked how a man could be always free.”

  Agesilaus II (444–360 BC) said by 360 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “ἵνα γιγνώσκῃς τὸν τιθασευτήν.”

  Aristophanes (445–385 BC) said by 385 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: : It is so that you may know only those who nourish you (tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus)

• “And Clitarchus and others say that in Carthage, during great prayers, they place a boy in the hands of Cronus (a bronze statue is set up, with outstretched hands, and under it a baking oven) and then put fire under; the boy shrunk by the fire seems to laugh.”

  Cleitarchus (401–301 BC) said by 301 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Ἀρίστων ὁ Χῖος ὁ Φάλανθος, ἐπικαλούμενος Σειρήν, τέλος ἔφησεν εἶναι τὸ ἀδιαφόρως ἔχοντα ζῆν πρὸς τὰ μεταξὺ ἀρετῆς καὶ κακίας μηδ᾿ ἡντινοῦν ἐν αὐτοῖς παραλλαγὴν ἀπολείποντα, ἀλλ᾿ ἐπίσης ἐπὶ πάντων ἔχοντα· εἶναι γὰρ ὅμοιον τὸν σοφὸν τῷ ἀγαθῷ ὑποκριτῇ, ὃς ἄν τε Θερσίτου ἄν τε Ἀγαμέμνονος πρόσωπον ἀναλάβῃ, ἑκάτερον ὑποκρινεῖται προσηκόντως.”

  Aristo of Chios (300–301 BC) said by 301 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “And happiness is thought to depend on leisure; for we are busy that we may have leisure, and make war that we may live in peace.”

  Aristotle (384–322 BC) said by 322 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “σφόδρα ἄξιός ἐστι μισεῖσθαι, ὅτι πονηρὸς ὢν καὶ τὰ τῶν χρηστῶν σημεῖα διαφθείρει.”

  Aeschines (390–322 BC) said by 322 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: III.99, on Demosthenes (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)

• “περὶ πλείονος ποιοῦ δόξαν καλὴν ἢ πλοῦτον μέγαν τοῖς παισὶ καταλιπεῖν.”

  Isocrates (436–338 BC) said by 338 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: II.32 (tr. H. B. Harbottle, 1897)

• “ἄνδρα δὲ καὶ γυναῖκα καὶ λόγον καὶ ἔργον καὶ πόλιν καὶ πρᾶγμα χρὴ τὸ μὲν ἄξιον ἐπαίνου ἐπαίνῳ τιμᾶν, τῷ δὲ ἀναξίῳ μῶμον ἐπιθεῖναι· ἴση γὰρ ἁμαρτία καὶ ἀμαθία μέμφεσθαί τε τὰ ἐπαινετὰ καὶ ἐπαινεῖν τὰ μωμητά.”

  Gorgias (485–375 BC) said by 375 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Man and woman and speech and deed and city and object should be honored with praise if praiseworthy and incur blame if unworthy, for it is an equal error and mistake to blame the praisable and to praise the blamable. (t…

• “εἰ δὲ μέλαινα, τί τοῦτο; καὶ ἄνθρακες· ἀλλ᾽ ὅτ᾽ ἐκείνους θάλψωμεν, λάμπους᾽ ὡς ῥόδεαι κάλυκες.”

  Asclepiades of Samos (320–301 BC) said by 301 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Anthologia Palatina, bk. 5, no. 210 (ed. & tr. W. R. Paton, vol. i, 1916, p. 233)

• “Faber est quisque fortunae suae (or) Faber est suae quisque fortunae (or) Est unusquisque faber ipsae suae fortunae.”

  Appius Claudius Caecus (died 301 BC) said by 301 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: This quote from Appius' famous speech (279 BC) opposing peace with the Greek general Pyrrhus I is sourced from the earliest known Roman historian with surviving works, Sallust, within a letter of political counsel writt…