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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 in the 200s

• “How great is the envy which follows a man from his neighbours, like the sting of a wicked spirit... he who receives it, and takes it as it were into his breast, has nothing else but to eat his own heart, and tear it, and consume both soul and body, finding inconsolable vexation in the good fortune of others.”

  Gregory Thaumaturgus (213–270) said by 270 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “οὐκ ἐν τῷ μεγάλῳ τὸ εὖ κείμενον εἶναι, ἀλλὰ ἐν τῷ εὖ τὸ μέγα.”

  Athenaeus (170–223) said by 223 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “If you think you see both Destruction and becoming, Then you see destruction and becoming Through impaired vision.”

  Nagarjuna (150–250) said by 250 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Gloria enim Dei vivens homo, vita autem hominis visio Dei.”

  Irenaeus (130–202) said by 202 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “It is manifest, further, that the language used regarding the wrath of God is to be understood figuratively from what is related of His “sleep,” from which, as if awaking Him, the prophet says: “Awake, why sleepest Thou, Lord?” and again: “Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.”

  Origen (184–254) said by 254 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “It is a persistent evil to persecute a man who belongs to the grace of God. It is a calamity without remedy to hate the happy.”

  Cyprian (200–258) said by 258 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “大丈夫當陳前死，而入牆閒，豈可得活乎？”

  Yuan Shao (154–202) said by 202 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The dead bodies of their parents they cut up with their sheep, and devour at their feasts. They who have not died so as to become food for others, are thought to have died an accursed death. Their women are not by their sex softened to modesty. They uncover the breast, from which they suspend their battle-axes, and prefer warfare to marriage.”

  Tertullian (160–240) said by 240 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I am emperor. It is I who know what is best for Rome. Not you traitors. Now, let go of my horses!”

  Elagabalus (203–222) said by 222 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Statement as he prepared to flee a camp after angry exchanges and insults with his Praetorian Guard; as quoted in The Gigantic Book of Horse Wisdom (2007) by Thomas Meagher, p. 298

• “[5 February] Memorial of Saint Agatha, virgin and martyr, who, while still young, preserved the purity of her body and the integrity of her faith during the persecution in Catania, Sicily, offering her testimony for Christ the Lord.”

  Agatha of Sicily (235–261) said by 261 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Ἐπιδειξαμένου γὰρ αὐτῷ τοῦ Μυρρινουσίου Φαίδρου λόγον ὑπὸ Λυσίου τοῦ Κεφάλου συγγεγραμμένον ἐρωτικόν, οὐκ ἔφη θαυμάζειν, πλῆρες τὸ στῆθος ἔχων ὥσπερ ἀγγεῖον ἀλλοτρίων ναμάτων, ἤ που Σαπφοῦς τῆς καλῆς (οὕτω γὰρ αὐτὴν ὀνομάζων χαίρει διὰ τὴν ὥραν τῶν μελῶν, καίτοι μικρὰν οὖσαν καὶ μέλαιναν), ἢ Ἀνακρέοντος, φησίν, τοῦ σοφοῦ.”

  Maximus of Tyre (200–200) said by 200 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Dissertations, no. 8 (18), sec. 7 (ed. William H. Race, 1997; tr. Thomas Taylor, 1804). Compare: Swinburne, "On the Cliffs", Songs of the Springtides (1880). For the French "une petite brunette", see Antoine Furetière (…

• “How sad it is to be a woman! Nothing on earth is held so cheap.”

  Fu Xuan (217–278) said by 278 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Let none escape utter destruction At our hands. Yea, whatso is found in the womb of the mother, Child unborn though it be, let it not escape utter destruction!”

  Septimius Severus (146–211) said by 211 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The sayings ... which are of importance for the whole end of salvation, and are enveloped in a wonderful and super-celestial depth of thought, should not be taken as they strike the careless ear, but with an effort of mind to reach the very spirit of the Saviour.”

  Clement of Alexandria (150–215) said by 215 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Ἀρχόμενος γαῖάν τε καὶ εὐρέα πόντον ἀείδειν καὶ ποταμοὺς πόλιάς τε καὶ ἀνδρῶν ἄκριτα φῦλα, μνήσομαι Ὠκεανοῖο βαθυρρόου. ἐν γὰρ ἐκείνῳ πᾶσα χθών, ἅτε νῆσος ἀπείριτος, ἐστεφάνωται, οὐ μὲν πᾶσα διαπρὸ περίδρομος, ἀλλὰ διαμφὶς ὀξυτέρη βεβαυῖα πρὸς ἠελίοιο κελεύθους, σφενδόνῃ εἰοικυῖα· μίαν δέ ἑ καίπερ ἐοῦσαν ἄνθρωποι τρισσῇσιν ἐπ᾿ ἠπείροισι δάσαντο· πρώτην μὲν Λιβύην, μετὰ δ᾿ Εὐρώπην Ἀσίην τε.”

  Dionysius Periegetes (100–200) said by 200 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Lines 1–9, translated by J. L. Lightfoot, Description of the Known World (Oxford, 2014) p. 201

• “My name is Chariton, son of Aphrodisias, and I am clerk to the attorney Athenagoras. I am going to tell you the story of a love affair that took place in Syracuse.”

  Chariton (100–200) said by 200 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “إني إنما أَملِكُ الأجساد لا النيّات، وأَحكُم بالعّدل لا بالرضى، وأفُحص عن الأعمال لا عن السّرائر.”

  أردشير الأول (180–242) said by 242 at the latest wikiquote:ar, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I think that there has been clearly expounded the mind of arithmeticians, who, by means of numbers and of names, suppose that they interpret life. Now I perceive that these, enjoying leisure, and being trained in calculation, have been desirous that, through the art delivered to them from childhood, they, acquiring celebrity, should be styled prophets.”

  Hippolytus of Rome (170–235) said by 235 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “For our part, may the god grant us proper detachment in depicting the story of others.”

  Longus (200–200) said by 200 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Daphnis and Chloe, Proem, § 4 (tr. Jeffrey Henderson); cp. Paul Turner (1956): "But as for me, I hope that the god will allow me to write of other people's experiences, while retianing my own sanity.

• “親賢臣 遠小人 此先漢所以興隆也. 親小人 遠賢臣 此後漢所以傾頹也。先帝在時 每與臣論此事 未嘗不歎息痛恨於桓靈也。”

  Zhuge Liang (181–234) said by 234 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “ὅτι δέ εἰσι φιλῳδοί, τοῦτο μὲν ἤδη καὶ τεθρύληται. ἐγὼ δὲ ᾄδοντος κύκνου οὐκ ἤκουσα, ἴσως δὲ οὐδὲ ἄλλος· πεπίστευται ⟨δ᾿⟩ οὖν ὅτι ᾄδει. καὶ λέγουσί γε αὐτὸν μάλιστα ⟨κατ᾿⟩ ἐκεῖνον εἶναι τὸν χρόνον εὐφωνότατόν τε καὶ ᾠδικώτατον, ὅταν ᾖ περὶ τὴν καταστροφὴν τοῦ βίου. διαβαίνουσι δὲ καὶ πέλαγος, καὶ πέτονται [καὶ] κατὰ θαλάσσης, καὶ αὐτοῖς οὐ κάμνει τὸ πτερόν.”

  Claudius Aelianus (died 235) said by 235 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: I.14 (tr. Thomas Stanley, 1665)