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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

• “Медицина поистине самое благородное из всех искусств.”

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

• “Довольствуйся настоящим, но стремись к лучшему.”

  Исократ (436–338 BC) said by 338 BC at the latest wikiquote:ru, 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

• “Не стремись знать все, чтобы не стать во всем невеждой.”

  Демокрит (461–361 BC) said by 361 BC at the latest wikiquote:ru, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “[A]ll things as subsist from nature appear to contain in themselves a principle of motion and permanency; some according to place, others according to increase and diminuation; and others according to change in quality.”

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

• “Εἰς οὐχ ὁσίην τρυμαλιὴν τὸ κέντρον ὠθεῖς.”

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

  Recorded in: On the occasion when Ptolemy II Philadelphus had remarried, to his sister Arsinoë II. Reported in Plutarch, On the Education of Children, sec. 11a, and in Athenaeus, bk. 14, sec. 621a: "So Patroclus, Ptolemy's general, …

• “A general good at commanding troops is like one sitting in a leaking boat or lying under a burning roof. For there is no time for the wise to offer counsel nor the brave to be angry. All must come to grips with the enemy. And therefore it is said that of all the dangers in employing troops, timidity is the greatest and that the calamities which overtake an army arise from hesitation.”

  Wu Qi (440–381 BC) said by 381 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Wuzi ('The Word of Wu') ch. 2, sec. 2. Translated by Samuel b. Griffith, Sun Tzu: The Art of War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1963) appx. 1, p. 159

• “ἰὼ στρατηγοὶ πλέονες ἢ βελτίονες.”

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

  Recorded in: : Ah! the Generals! they are numerous, but not good for much! (tr. Athen. 1912, vol. 1, Perseus)

• “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)

• “λαβόντες δὲ τοὺς ἄρχοντας ἀναρχίᾳ ἐνόμιζον ἡμᾶς ἀπολέσθαι. δεῖ οὖν πολὺ μὲν τοὺς ἄρχοντας ἐπιμελεστέρους γενέσθαι τοὺς νῦν τῶν πρόσθεν, πολὺ δὲ τοὺς ἀρχομένους εὐτακτοτέρους καὶ πειθομένους μᾶλλον τοῖς ἄρχουσι νῦν ἢ πρόσθεν. [. . .] τῇδε γὰρ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ μυρίους ὄψονται ἀνθ᾿ ἑνὸς Κλεάρχους.”

  Xenophon (431–354 BC) said by 354 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Paraphrased by E. Hamilton, 1930:

• “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

• “ἀπάτην, [. . .] ἣν ὅ τ᾿ ἀπατήσας δικαιότερος τοῦ μὴ ἀπατήσαντος καὶ ὁ ἀπατηθεὶς σοφώτερος τοῦ μὴ ἀπατηθέντος.”

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

  Recorded in: A deception, [. . .] in which the one who deceives is more just than the one who does not deceive, and the one who is deceived is more intelligent than the one who is not deceived. (tr. A. Laks, G. W. Most, 2016)

• “νῦν δὲ ἐκεῖνοι μὲν μεγάλων κακῶν συμβάντων ἔσωσαν τὴν πόλιν τὸ κάλλιστον ἐκ παιδείας ῥῆμα φθεγξάμενοι, 'μὴ μνησικακεῖν'.”

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

  Recorded in: Paraphrased by C. T. Ramage, 1930:

• “There is a fire in the middle at the centre, which is the Vesta of the universe, the house of Jupiter, the mother of the Gods, and the basis coherence and measure of nature.”

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

  Recorded in: Quoted by Johannes Stobaeus, Eclogues (5th-century CE) Phys. p. 51, Tr. Thomas Taylor, The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus (1824) p.156.

• “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…

• “τοὺς μὲν γὰρ λόγους οὐχ οἷόν τε καλῶς ἔχειν, ἢν μὴ τῶν καιρῶν καὶ τοῦ πρέποντος καὶ τοῦ καινῶς μετάσχωσιν, τοῖς δὲ γράμμασιν οὐδενὸς τούτων προσεδέησεν.”

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

• “Если бы роскошь была дурна, её не было бы на пирах у богов.”

  Аристипп (435–355 BC) said by 355 BC at the latest wikiquote:ru, 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

• “ἔστι δ᾿ οὐδέποτ᾿, οἶμαι, μέγα καὶ νεανικὸν φρόνημα λαβεῖν μικρὰ καὶ φαῦλα πράττοντας· ὁποῖ᾿ ἄττα γὰρ ἂν τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα τῶν ἀνθρώπων ᾖ, τοιοῦτον ἀνάγκη καὶ τὸ φρόνημα ἔχειν.”

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

  Recorded in: III.32 (tr. J. H. Vince, 1930)

• “Разум — это понимание сущности вещей.”

  Мо-цзы (470–391 BC) said by 391 BC at the latest wikiquote:ru, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Обращайся с сановниками, как с огнем: не стой ни очень близко, ни очень далеко от них.”

  Диоген Синопский (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote:ru, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “When a well-contrived but difficult plan to free Greece was proposed to Agis II, he replied, “Friend, thy words need an army and a treasure.”

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

• “Wine and treacherous toasts and the sweet love of Nicagoras sent Aglaonice to sleep; and here hath she dedicated to Cypris these spoils of her maiden love still all dripping with scent, her sandals and the soft band that held her bosom, witnesses to her sleep and his violence then.”

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

• “When people laughed at him because he walked backward beneath the portico, he said to them: "Aren't you ashamed, you who walk backward along the whole path of existence, and blame me for walking backward along the path of the promenade?”

  Diogenes of Sinope (400–323 BC) said by 323 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source