Soft men tend to be born from soft countries.
Meaning of the quote
The quote suggests that people who live in comfortable, easy places often become weak and soft, lacking the strength and resilience that comes from facing challenges. The idea is that the environment we grow up in shapes the kind of people we become - those from hardship and difficulty tend to be tougher, while those from comfort and ease may lack the same inner strength. The quote reflects the belief that adversity and struggle can produce stronger, more capable individuals.
More quotes from Herodotus
Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.
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Men trust their ears less than their eyes.
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Do you see how the god always hurls his bolts at the greatest houses and the tallest trees. For he is wont to thwart whatever is greater than the rest.
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One should always look to the end of everything, how it will finally come out. For the god has shown blessedness to many only to overturn them utterly in the end.
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How much better a thing it is to be envied than to be pitied.
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To think well and to consent to obey someone giving good advice are the same thing.
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Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give lustre, and many more people see than weigh.
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Death is a delightful hiding place for weary men.
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God does not suffer presumption in anyone but himself.
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Of all possessions a friend is the most precious.
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Force has no place where there is need of skill.
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I am bound to tell what I am told, but not in every case to believe it.
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Civil strife is as much a greater evil than a concerted war effort as war itself is worse than peace.
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The gods loves to punish whatever is greater than the rest.
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It is clear that not in one thing alone, but in many ways equality and freedom of speech are a good thing.
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The man who has planned badly, if fortune is on his side, may have had a stroke of luck; but his plan was a bad one nonetheless.
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Great things are won by great dangers.
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The ears of men are lesser agents of belief than their eyes.
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Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.
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Of all men’s miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing.
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It’s impossible for someone who is human to have all good things together, just as there is no single country able to provide all good things for itself.
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If someone were to put a proposition before men bidding them choose, after examination, the best customs in the world, each nation would certainly select its own.
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As the old saw says well: every end does not appear together with its beginning.
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Remember that with her clothes a woman puts off her modesty.
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The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.
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Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.
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The destiny of man is in his own soul.
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The most hateful human misfortune is for a wise man to have no influence.
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A man calumniated is doubly injured – first by him who utters the calumny, and then by him who believes it.
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If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.
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All men’s gains are the fruit of venturing.
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Soft men tend to be born from soft countries.
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When a woman removes her garment, she also removes the respect that is hers.
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He is the best man who, when making his plans, fears and reflects on everything that can happen to him, but in the moment of action is bold.
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I never yet feared those men who set a place apart in the middle of their cities where they gather to cheat one another and swear oaths which they break.
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In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons.
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Men’s fortunes are on a wheel, which in its turning suffers not the same man to prosper for ever.
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Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal; While others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before.
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It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen.
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There is nothing more foolish, nothing more given to outrage than a useless mob.
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Whatever comes from God is impossible for a man to turn back.
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The worst pain a man can suffer: to have insight into much and power over nothing.
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Many exceedingly rich men are unhappy, but many middling circumstances are fortunate.
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In soft regions are born soft men.
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Illness strikes men when they are exposed to change.
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But I like not these great success of yours; for I know how jealous are the gods.
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