Alexander the Great Quotes

“My logisticians are a humorless lot ... they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay.”

“The end and object of conquest is to avoid doing the same thing as the conquered.”

“I do not pilfer victory.”

“But truly, if I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.”

“Youths of the Pellaians and of the Macedonians and of the Hellenic Amphictiony and of the Lakedaimonians and of the Corinthians... and of all the Hellenic peoples, join your fellow-soldiers and entrust yourselves to me, so that we can move against the barbarians and liberate ourselves from the Persian bondage, for as Greeks we should not be slaves to barbarians.”

“On their side more men are standing, on ours more will fight!”

“Heaven cannot brook two suns, nor earth two masters.”

“Are you still to learn that the end and perfection of our victories is to avoid the vices and infirmities of those whom we subdue?”

“Toil and risk are the price of glory, but it is a lovely thing to live with courage and die leaving an everlasting fame.”

“O Athenians, what toil do I undergo to please you!”

“True love never has a happy ending, because there is no ending to true love.”

“A tomb now suffices him for whom the whole world was not sufficient.”

“How happy had it been for me had I been slain in the battle. It had been far more noble to have died the victim of the enemy than fall a sacrifice to the rage of my friends.”

“As for a limit to one’s labors, I, for one, do not recognize any for a high-minded man, except that the labors themselves should lead to noble accomplishments.”

“Every light is not the sun.”

“Who does not desire such a victory by which we shall join places in our Kingdom, so far divided by nature, and for which we shall set up trophies in another conquered world?”

“I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well.”

“At Achilles tomb, O fortunate youth, to have found Homer as the herald of your glory!”

“I had rather excel others in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and dominion.”

“Without Knowledge, Skill cannot be focused. Without Skill, Strength cannot be brought to bear and without Strength, Knowledge may not be applied.”

“Are there no more worlds that I might conquer?”

“Now you fear punishment and beg for your lives, so I will let you free, if not for any other reason so that you can see the difference between a Greek king and a barbarian tyrant, so do not expect to suffer any harm from me. A king does not kill messengers.”

“How should a man be capable of grooming his own horse, or of furbishing his own spear and helmet, if he allows himself to become unaccustomed to tending even his own person, which is his most treasured belonging?”

“There is nothing impossible to him who will try.”

“There are so many worlds and I have not yet conquered even one.”