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.
Meaning of the quote
No single person can have everything they want. Just like no country can provide everything it needs on its own. We all need to work together and depend on each other to get the best things in life.
About Herodotus
Herodotus was a Greek historian and geographer known as the “Father of History”. He wrote detailed accounts of the Greco-Persian Wars, including famous battles like Marathon and Salamis. While some questioned the accuracy of his work, much of it has been confirmed by modern historians and archaeologists.
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More quotes from Herodotus
Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
Men trust their ears less than their eyes.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
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.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
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.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
How much better a thing it is to be envied than to be pitied.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
To think well and to consent to obey someone giving good advice are the same thing.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give lustre, and many more people see than weigh.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
Death is a delightful hiding place for weary men.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
God does not suffer presumption in anyone but himself.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
Of all possessions a friend is the most precious.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
Force has no place where there is need of skill.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
I am bound to tell what I am told, but not in every case to believe it.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
Civil strife is as much a greater evil than a concerted war effort as war itself is worse than peace.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
The gods loves to punish whatever is greater than the rest.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
It is clear that not in one thing alone, but in many ways equality and freedom of speech are a good thing.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
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.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
Great things are won by great dangers.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
The ears of men are lesser agents of belief than their eyes.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
Of all men’s miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
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.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
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.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
As the old saw says well: every end does not appear together with its beginning.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
Remember that with her clothes a woman puts off her modesty.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
The destiny of man is in his own soul.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
The most hateful human misfortune is for a wise man to have no influence.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
A man calumniated is doubly injured – first by him who utters the calumny, and then by him who believes it.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
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.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
All men’s gains are the fruit of venturing.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
Soft men tend to be born from soft countries.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
When a woman removes her garment, she also removes the respect that is hers.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
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.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
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.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
Men’s fortunes are on a wheel, which in its turning suffers not the same man to prosper for ever.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
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.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
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.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
There is nothing more foolish, nothing more given to outrage than a useless mob.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
Whatever comes from God is impossible for a man to turn back.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
The worst pain a man can suffer: to have insight into much and power over nothing.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
Many exceedingly rich men are unhappy, but many middling circumstances are fortunate.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
In soft regions are born soft men.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
Illness strikes men when they are exposed to change.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)
But I like not these great success of yours; for I know how jealous are the gods.
Greek historian and geographer (c.484-c.425 BC)