Sign in with your pod

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

EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina

Said between 500 and 401 BC

• “不憤不啟；不悱不發。擧一隅，不以三隅反，則不復也。”

  Confucius (551–479 BC) said by 479 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Οὐδ᾿ ἂν τὸ ὑγιὲς ἀλγῆσαι δύναιτο· ἀπὸ γὰρ ἂν ὄλοιτο τὸ ὑγιὲς καὶ τὸ ἐόν, τὸ δὲ οὐκ ἐὸν γένοιτο. Καὶ περὶ τοῦ ἀνιᾶσθαι ὡυτὸς λόγος τῶι ἀλγέοντι. Οὐδὲ κενεόν ἐστιν οὐδέν· τὸ γὰρ κενεὸν οὐδέν ἐστιν· οὐκ ἂν οὖν εἴη τό γε μηδέν. Οὐδὲ κινεῖται· ὑποχωρῆσαι γὰρ οὐκ ἔχει οὐδαμῆι, ἀλλὰ πλέων ἐστίν. Εἰ μὲν γὰρ κενεὸν ἦν, ὑπεχώρει ἂν εἰς τὸ κενόν· κενοῦ δὲ μὴ ἐόντος οὐκ ἔχει ὅκηι ὑποχωρήσει.”

  Melissus of Samos (491–431 BC) said by 431 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Also quoted by: Μέλισσος ο Σάμιος (el)

• “Περὶ μὲν θεῶν οὐκ ἔχω εἰδέναι οὔθ᾽ ὡς εἰσίν, οὔθ᾽ ὡς οὐκ εἰσίν· πολλὰ γὰρ τὰ κωλύοντα εἰδέναι, ἥ τ᾿ ἀδηλότης καὶ βραχὺς ὢν ὁ βίος τοῦ ἀνθρώπου.”

  Protagoras (490–420 BC) said by 420 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Quoted in Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, b. 9, sec. 51. Translated by R. D. Hicks, vol. 2 (1925) p. 465. Diogenes adds: "For this introduction to his book the Athenians expelled him; and they burnt hi…

• “οὐκ ἔστ᾿ ἀναιδοῦς ζῷον εὐθαρσέστερον.”

  Diphilus (351–401 BC) said by 401 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Frg. 110 K.-A. (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1873)

• “... When I became king, I built much excellent (construction). What had been built by my father (Darius I), that I protected, and other building I added. What moreover I built, and what my father built, all that by the favor of Ahuramazda we built.”

  Xerxes I (519–465 BC) said by 465 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “For it is the same thing that can be thought and that can be.”

  Parmenides (515–470 BC) said by 470 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The Scythians take kannabis seed, creep in under the felts, and throw it on the red-hot stones. It smolders and sends up such billows of steam-smoke that no Greek vapor bath can surpass it. The Scythians howl with joy in these vapor-baths, which serve them instead of bathing, for they never wash their bodies with water.”

  Herodotus (484–425 BC) said by 425 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Μολὼν λαβέ [Molōn labe!]”

  Leonidas I (died 480 BC) said by 480 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Eat not the brain.”

  Pythagoras (583–491 BC) said by 491 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Ἐν δὲ σιδαροδέτοις πόρπαξιν αἰθᾶν ἀραχνᾶν ἱστοὶ πέλονται, ἔγχεα τε λογχωτὰ ξίφεα τ᾽ ἀμφάκεα δάμναται εὐρώς.”

  Bacchylides (516–451 BC) said by 451 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Philip Ayres, 1687

• “οὐ μετανοεῖν ἀλλὰ προνοεῖν χρὴ τὸν ἄνδρα τὸν σοφόν.”

  Epicharmus of Kos (540–435 BC) said by 435 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Frg. 263 K.-A. = B 41 DK (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)

• “ἦ βαρὺ φόρημ᾿ ἄνθρωπος εὐτυχῶν ἄφρων.”

  Aeschylus (525–456 BC) said by 456 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Fragment 392 (220 Smyth), from an unidentified play. Included in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

• “Statue of Zeus in Olympia”

  Polykleitos (490–420 BC) said by 420 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Also quoted by: Phidias

• “Φιλολοιδόροιο γλώττης ἔφυγον βέλεμνα κουφά.”

  Anacreon (570–485 BC) said by 485 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Odes, XLII (XL), 11 (tr. Harbottle, 1897, p. 527)

• “There is one god, greatest among gods and men, similar to mortals neither in shape nor in thought.”

  Xenophanes (570–478 BC) said by 478 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Fragment 23, as quoted in Notes on Greek Philosophy by Anthony Preus (Global Academic Publishing, 1996), p. 10

• “Such being the nature of absolute truth, it manifests itself without being seen; it produces effects without motion; it accomplishes its ends without action.”

  Zisi (483–402 BC) said by 402 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “ἀνδρῶν δικαίων Χρόνος σωτὴρ ἄριστος.”

  Pindar (517–437 BC) said by 437 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire, pp 289–290”

  Artaxerxes I of Persia (501–424 BC) said by 424 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “οἷον σοφιστῶν σμῆνος ἀνεδιφήσατε.”

  Cratinus (500–426 BC) said by 426 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Tell your king (Xerxes), who sent you, how his Greek viceroy of Macedonia has received you hospitably.”

  Alexander I of Macedon (died 454 BC) said by 454 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “ἄνθρωποι δὲ μάταια νομίζομεν, εἰδότες οὐδέν· θεοὶ δὲ κατὰ σφέτερον πάντα τελοῦσι νόον.”

  Theognis of Megara (570–485 BC) said by 485 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Lines 141–142 (tr. H. B. Harbottle, 1897)