Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,161,747 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Said between 500 and 401 BC
“W. R. Paton, tr. Greek Anthology, Vol. 2, LCL 68 (1917)”
Chaeremon (400–401 BC) said by 401 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But the bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it.”
Pericles (494–429 BC) said by 429 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The most interesting non-Western grammatical tradition—and the most original and independent—is that of India, which dates back at least two and one-half millennia and which culminates with the grammar of Panini, of the 5th century BCE. There are three major ways in which the Sanskrit tradition has had an impact on modern linguistic scholarship.”
Pāṇini (520–460 BC) said by 460 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Pavle Ivić in: Linguistics, britannica.com, 9 April 2013.
“I have no desire to die, but I count my death as nothing.”
Epicharmus of Kos (540–435 BC) said by 435 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Frg. 230 K.-A. = B 11 DK (tr. T. Habinek, 2012)
“σοφὸς ὁ πολλὰ εἰδὼς φυᾷ.”
Pindar (517–437 BC) said by 437 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“πάντα γὰρ καιρῷ καλά.”
Sophocles (496–406 BC) said by 406 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Line 1516 (tr. Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald, 1949)
“γῆς ἱδρῶτα θάλασσαν.”
Empedocles (494–434 BC) said by 434 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would not have Amalthea's horn, nor even a reign of a hundred years and fifty over all-happy Tartessus.”
Anacreon (570–485 BC) said by 485 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Poems, Book I, 8 (tr. Edmonds, 1924, pp. 140-3)
“If now you shall think that "How many are the countries which King Darius held?" look at the sculptures [of those] who bear the throne, then shall you know, then shall it become known to you: the spear of a Persian man has gone forth far; then shall it become known to you: a Persian man has delivered battle far indeed from Persia.”
Darius I of Persia (550–486 BC) said by 486 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You, Socrates, began by saying that virtue can't be taught, and now you are insisting on the opposite, trying to show that all things are knowledge, justice, soundness of mind, even courage, from which it would follow that virtue most certainly can be taught.”
Protagoras (490–420 BC) said by 420 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Plato, Protagoras, sec. 361a–b. Translated by C. C. W. Taylor, Plato: 'Protagoras' (Oxford, 1976) p. 56
“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
“I never learned how to tune a harp, or play upon a lute; but I know how to raise a small and inconsiderable city to glory and greatness.”
Themistocles (524–459 BC) said by 459 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Plutarch, in Lives as translated by J. Langhorne and W. Langhorne (1836), p. 84
“McWilliam, Janette; Puttock, Sonia; Stevenson, Tom, eds. (C.E.2011). The Statue of Zeus at Olympia: New Approaches. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-3032-4.”
Phidias (500–430 BC) said by 430 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“# Lifetime is a child at play, moving pieces in a game. Kingship belongs to the child.”
Heraclitus (535–471 BC) said by 471 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Something I have never seen before, and never even heard of-now all the marvelous purity of the Buddha land is visible before me!”
Śāriputra (568–484 BC) said by 484 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Livy, History, III, § 27.”
Lucio Quinzio Cincinnato (451–451 BC) said by 451 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The sun provides the moon with its brightness.”
Anaxagoras (500–428 BC) said by 428 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fragment in Plutarch De facie in orbe lunae, 929b, as quoted in The Riverside Dictionary of Biography (2005), p. 23
“Μολὼν λαβέ [Molōn labe!]”
Leonidas I (died 480 BC) said by 480 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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
“You must learn all things, both the unshaken heart of persuasive truth, and the opinions of mortals in which there is no true warranty.”
Parmenides (515–470 BC) said by 470 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From Peloponnesos (came) the Lakedaimonians..., the Corinthians..., the Sikyonians..., the Epidaurians..., the Troiezenians... All these (groups)... belong to the Dorian and Macedonian nation (and) had emigrated last from Erineus and Pindos and Dryopis.”
Herodotus (484–425 BC) said by 425 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source