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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

• “Pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes.”

  Antisthenes (445–365 BC) said by 365 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Pausanias, qui avait été outragé à l'instigation d'Attale et de Cléopâtre [de Macédoine] et n'avait pu obtenir réparation, assassina Philippe. On attribua à Olympias la principale responsabilité de ce meurtre, car on jugeait qu'elle avait enflammé et excité la colère du jeune homme ; mais quelques soupçons se portèrent également sur Alexandre.”

  Olympias (375–316 BC) said by 316 BC at the latest wikiquote:fr, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “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

• “πῶς δ᾿ ἂν μεθύων χρηστόν τι βουλεύσαιτ᾿ ἀνήρ;”

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

  Recorded in: What good is in a drunken counsellor? (tr. C. A. Wheelwright, 1837)

• “If the rulers sincerely desire the empire to be wealthy and dislike to have it poor, desire to have it orderly and dislike to have it chaotic, they should bring about universal love and mutual aid. This is the way of the sage-kings and the way to order for the world, and it should not be neglected.”

  Mozi (470–391 BC) said by 391 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Alors que ses compagnons lui demandaient s'il voulait concourir à Olympie pour l'épreuve du stade, car il était agile, il répondit : "Oui, à condition d'avoir des rois pour adversaires.”

  Alexandre le Grand (356–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote:fr, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Vies parallèles Anne-Marie Ozanam Plutarque Gallimard Quarto 2001 Alexandre IV, 10 1230 }} == Diogène Laërce == == Plutarque, Sur la fortune ou la vertu d'Alexandre == C'est bien du sang, et non pas cette liqueur qui co…

• “μὴ καταγνῷς δὲ τοῦ χρώματος ἡμῶν· ἐσμὲν γὰρ λευκότεροι καὶ λαμπρότεροι ταῖς ψυχαῖς τῶν παρὰ σοῦ λευκοτάτων.”

  Callisthenes (360–327 BC) said by 327 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: β-recension, bk. 3, sec. 18 (tr. Richard Stoneman, 1991); Candace of Meroe

• “Combien de compatriotes furent exilés par eux chez les ennemis, combien d'innocents exécutés et privés de sépultures, combien dépouillés de leurs droits de citoyens ! Combien de filles qui allaient se marier et qu'ils en ont empêchées !”

  Lysias (445–380 BC) said by 380 BC at the latest wikiquote:fr, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Je crois qu'il est évident pour tous que celui-là doit être le plus dévoué au bonheur de l'État, qui partage le plus sa prospérité et son malheur.”

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

• “Trois sortes de fautes sont particulièrement pernicieuses pour les empires : se laisser apitoyer, céder au charme de l’éloquence et vouloir se montrer compréhensif.”

  Thucydide (461–395 BC) said by 395 BC at the latest wikiquote:fr, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The ancient theologists and priests... testify that the soul is united with the body as if for the sake of punishment; and so is buried in body as in a sepulchre.”

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

  Recorded in: Quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus, Stromata, Book III (ca. 190 AD) Tr. Thomas Taylor, The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries: A Dissertation (1891)

• “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

• “La multitude, dont aucun membre n'est un homme vertueux, peut cependant, par l'union de tous, être meilleure que l'élite.”

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

  Recorded in: La philosophie pour les nuls Christian Godin First Éditions 2006 96 2-87691-998-2}} {{Réf Article Réflexion faite : du bon usage de la colère Aristote cité par Martin Legros {{W|France Info

• “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

• “Ἡνία δή τοι παῖδες ἐνί, τράγε, φοινικόενταθέντες καὶ λασίῳ φιμὰ περὶ στόματι,ἵππια παιδεύουσι θεοῦ περὶ ναὸν ἄεθλα,ὄφρ᾽ αὐτοὺς ἐφορῇ νήπια τερπομένους.”

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

  Recorded in: Anthologia Palatina, vi, 312, as translated by W. H. D. Rouse, An Echo of Greek Song (1899), "The Goat

• “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…

• “The orators — and the despots — have the least power in their cities … since they do nothing that they wish to do, practically speaking, though they do whatever they think to be best.”

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

• “Ma patrie était Chalcédoine et ma profession le savoir.”

  Thrasymaque (459–399 BC) said by 399 BC at the latest wikiquote:fr, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Aspasie devint, dit-on, si renommée, si fameuse, que Cyrus, celui qui fit la guerre au Grand Roi et lui disputa la souveraineté sur les Perses, donna le nom d'Aspasie à sa concubine préférée, qui s'appelait auparavant Miltô.”

  Aspasie (470–400 BC) said by 400 BC at the latest wikiquote:fr, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “ἢν γὰρ ταῦτα πράττῃς, ἅπαντές σοι χάριν ἕξουσιν, οἱ μὲν Ἕλληνες ὑπὲρ ὧν ἂν εὖ πάσχωσι, Μακεδόνες δ᾿ ἢν βασιλικῶς ἀλλὰ μὴ τυραννικῶς αὐτῶν ἐπιστατῇς, τὸ δὲ τῶν ἄλλων γένος, ἢν διὰ σὲ βαρβαρικῆς δεσποτείας ἀπαλλαγέντες Ἑλληνικῆς ἐπιμελείας τύχωσιν.”

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

• “τὸν αὐτὸν δὲ λόγον ἔχει ἥ τε τοῦ λόγου δύναμις πρὸς τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς τάξιν ἥ τε τῶν φαρμάκων τάξις πρὸς τὴν τῶν σωμάτων φύσιν. ὥσπερ γὰρ τῶν φαρμάκων ἄλλους ἄλλα χυμοὺς ἐκ τοῦ σώματος ἐξάγει, καὶ τὰ μὲν νόσου τὰ δὲ βίου παύει, οὕτω καὶ τῶν λόγων οἱ μὲν ἐλύπησαν, οἱ δὲ ἔτερψαν, οἱ δὲ ἐφόβησαν, οἱ δὲ εἰς θάρσος κατέστησαν τοὺς ἀκούοντας, οἱ δὲ πειθοῖ τινι κακῇ τὴν ψυχὴν ἐφαρμάκευσαν καὶ ἐξεγοήτευσαν.”

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

  Recorded in: The effect of speech upon the condition of the soul is comparable to the power of drugs over the nature of bodies. For just as different drugs dispel different secretions from the body, and some bring an end to disease …

• “The speech is admirable, but the speaker is not to be trusted; for he has never been amid the blare of trumpets.”

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

  Recorded in: Speech about a philosopher who had claimed that philosophers were the only good generals, Quoted in Plutarch Apophthegmata Laconica, translated by F. C. Babbitt, 1931, also quoted in Chambers Dictionary of Quotations, p…

• “κατὰ τὸν δεύτερον, φασί, πλοῦν τὰ ἐλάχιστα ληπτέον τῶν κακῶν”

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