Hérodotos citáty
Hérodotos
Dátum narodenia: 484 pr. n. l.
Dátum úmrtia: 425 pr. 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.
Citáty Hérodotos
„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.
„Before battle was joined they say that someone from Trachis warned him how many Persians there were by saying that when they fired their bows, they hid the sun with the mass of arrows. Dianeces, so the story goes, was so dismissive of the Persian numbers that he calmly replied, "All to the good, my friend from Trachis. If the Persians hide the sun, the battle will be in shade rather than sunlight."“
— Herodotus
Book 7, Ch. 226.
„Force has no place where there is need of skill.“
— Herodotus
Book 3, Ch. 127.
„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.
[http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/hh1030.htm The History of Herodotus Book I, Chapter 32].
„My men have turned into women and my women into men!“
— Herodotus
Book 8, Ch. 98.
