Famous Historical Quotations of World History

Mr. Sedivy's
History Classes:

More Features:

Highlands Ranch High School - Mr. Sedivy
Highlands Ranch, Colorado

- Famous Quotes Throughout World History -
The Great Quotes of Ancient Greece

Homer - 8th Century BC

From the Iliad:
"Like that of leaves is a generation of men."

From the Iliad:
"It lies in the lap of the gods."

From the Odyssey:
"I would rather be tied to the soil as another man's serf, even a poor man's, who hadn't much to live on himself, than be King of all these the dead and destroyed."

Anacharsis - 6th Century BC

"Written laws are like spider's webs; they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor, but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful."

Heraclitus c.540 - c.480 BC

"You can't step twice into the same river."

"A man's character is his fate."

"The road up and the road down are one and the same."

Sophocles c.496 - 406 BC

"There are many wonderful things, and nothing is more wonderful than man."

"Not to be born is, past all prizing, best."

Someone asked Sophocles: "How is your sex-life now? Are you still able to have a woman?" His reply:
"Hush, man; most gladly indeed am I rid of it all, as though I had escaped from a mad and savage master."

Pericles c.495 - 429 BC

"Famous men have the whole earth as their memorial."

"The greatest glory of a woman is to be least talked about by men."

"Our love of what is beautiful does not lead to extravagance; our love of the things of the mind does not make us soft."

Protagoras - b. c.485 BC

"Man is the measure of all things."

Euripides c.485 - 406 BC

"My tongue swore, but my mind's unsworn."

Agathon - c.445 BC

"Even a god cannot change the past."

Socrates 469 - 399 BC

"I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance."

"The unexamined life is not worth living."

"How many things I can do without!"

"But, my dearest Agathon, it is truth which you cannot contradict; you can without any difficulty contradict Socrates."

"It is never right to do wrong or to requite wrong with wrong, or when we suffer evil to defend ourselves by doing evil in return."

Hippocrates c.460 - 357 BC

"Life is short, the art long."

Plato 429 - 347 BC

"Is that which is holy loved by the gods because it is holy, or is it holy because it is loved by the gods?"

"What I say is that 'just' or 'right' means nothing but what is in the interest of the stronger party."

Diogenes c.400 - c.325 BC

When Alexander asked him if he lacked anything, Diogenes replied:
"Yes, that I do: that you stand out of my sun a little."

Aristotle 384 - 322 BC

"We make war that we may live in peace."

"Every art and every investigation, and likewise every practical pursuit or undertaking, seems to aim at some good: hence it has been well said that the Good is That at which all things aim."

"Therefore, the good of man must be the end (i.e. objective) of the science of politics."

"Tragedy is thus a representation of an action that is worth serious attention, complete in itself and of some amplitude É by means of pity and fear bringing about the purgation of such emotions."

"So poetry is something more philosophical and more worthy of serious attention than history."

"Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities." "Man is by nature a political animal."

"He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god."

"Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly."

When asked: "What is a friend?" Aristotle replied:
"One soul inhabiting two bodies."

"Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas."
(Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.)

Alexander the Great 356 - 323 BC

"If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes."

Euclid - c.300 BC

"There is no 'royal road' to geometry."

"A line is length without breadth."

"Quod erat demonstrandum."
(Which was to be proved.)

Archimedes c.287 - 212 BC

"Eureka! I've got it."

"Give me but one firm spot on which to stand, and I will move the earth."

Anonymous Quotes from Ancient Greece

Inscribed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi:
"Know thyself"
(Plato ascribes the saying to the Seven Wise Men)

Inscribed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi:
"Nothing in excess"

Inscription on Plato's door:
"Let no one enter who does not know geometry."

"Whenever God prepares evil for a man, He first damages his mind, with which he deliberates."

- Famous Quotes Throughout World History -

Highlands Ranch High School 9375 South Cresthill Lane Highlands Ranch, Colorado 80126 303-471-7000

| Home | Back to top of page | Site Contents |