Hérodotos citátov
Hérodotos
Dátum narodenia: 484 pred n. l.
Dátum úmrtia: 425 pred n. l.
Hérodotos, gr. Ἡρόδοτος, bol grécky historik, geograf, etnograf a filozof dejín, „otec dejepisu“. Mladosť strávil na ostrove Samos, po nastolení tyranidy v Halikarnasse ušiel do Atén a neskôr sa usadil v južnej Itálii. Atény poznal v období Periklovej demokracie. Navštívil Egypt, Prednú Áziu, Čiernomorie i africkú Kyrénu; koniec života prežil v južnej Itálii. Poznatky z ciest uplatnil v diele „Historiés Apodexis“, ktoré koncipoval ako odveký boj Grékov s barbarmi. Zmysel dejín videl v úsilí o neustálu rovnováhu. Herodotos preniesol ťažisko záujmu na politické dejiny.
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staroveký grécky filozofCitáty Hérodotos
„Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.“
— Herodotus
This statement is not to be found in the works of Herodotus. It appears in the acknowledgements to Mark Twain's A Horse's Tale (1907) preceded by the words "Herodotus says", but Twain was simply summarizing what he took to be Herodotus' attitude to historiography.
„It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day’s journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed.“
— Herodotus
Book 8, Ch. 98
variant: Not snow, no, nor rain, nor heat, nor night keeps them from accomplishing their appointed courses with all speed. (Book 8, Ch. 98)
Paraphrase: "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" ”
Appears carved over entrance to Central Post Office building in New York City.
„In peace sons bury fathers, but in war fathers bury sons.“
— Herodotus
Variant translation: In peace, children inter their parents; war violates the order of nature and causes parents to inter their children.
Book 1, Ch. 87.
„When this response reached Croesus, it afforded him far more pleasure than anything else the oracle had told him, because he was sure that a mule would never replace a man as the Persian king, and that in consequence he and his descendants would rule for ever. He next turned his mind to investigating which was the most powerful Greek state, so that he could gain them as his allies. As a result of his enquiries, he discovered that Lacedaemon and Athens were the outstanding states, and that Lacedaemon was populated by Dorians while Athens was populated by Ionians. For these two peoples—the one Pelasgian, the other Hellenic—had been pre-eminent in the old days. The Pelasgians never migrated anywhere, but the Hellenes were a very well-travelled race. When Deucalion was their king, they were living in Phthia, but in the time of Dorus the son of Hellen they were in the territory around Mounts Ossa and Olympus, known as Histiaeotis. Then they were evicted from Histiaeotis by the Cadmeans and settled on Mount Pindus, where they were called Macedonians. Next they moved to Dryopis, and from Dryopis they finally reached the Peloponnese and became known as the Dorians.“
— Herodotus
Book 1, Ch. 56; as translated in The Histories (1998) by Robin Waterfield and Carolyn Dewald http://books.google.com/books?id=Or5CKl1ObX4C&pg=PA24 pp. 23-24 <!-- Oxford University Press -->
„Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give lustre, and many more people see than weigh.“
— Herodotus
Actually a quotation from a letter of Lord Chesterfield dated May 8, 1750.
„This is the bitterest pain among men, to have much knowledge but no power.“
— Herodotus
Book 9, Ch. 16
Variant translations:
Of all men's miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing.
The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.
„It is better to be envied than pitied.“
— Herodotus
Book 3, Ch. 52
Variant: How much better a thing it is to be envied than to be pitied.
„Call no man happy till he dies.“
— Herodotus
Herodotus actually attributes this to Solon in a conversation with King Crœsus.
Variants:
Deem no man happy, until he passes the end of his life without suffering grief
Many very wealthy men are not happy, while many who have but a moderate living are fortunate; and in truth the very rich man who is not happy has two advantages only as compared with the poor man who is fortunate, whereas this latter has many as compared with the rich man who is not happy. The rich man is able better to fulfil his desire, and also to endure a great calamity if it fall upon him; whereas the other has advantage over him in these things which follow: — he is not indeed able equally with the rich man to endure a calamity or to fulfil his desire, but these his good fortune keeps away from him, while he is sound of limb, free from disease, untouched by suffering, the father of fair children and himself of comely form; and if in addition to this he shall end his life well, he is worthy to be called that which thou seekest, namely a happy man; but before he comes to his end it is well to hold back and not to call him yet happy but only fortunate. Now to possess all these things together is impossible for one who is mere man, just as no single land suffices to supply all things for itself, but one thing it has and another it lacks, and the land that has the greatest number of things is the best: so also in the case of a man, no single person is complete in himself, for one thing he has and another he lacks; but whosoever of men continues to the end in possession of the greatest number of these things and then has a gracious ending of his life, he is by me accounted worthy, O king, to receive this name.
The History of Herodotus Book I, Chapter 32 http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/hh1030.htm.
