Alexander the Great Quotes

“In the end, when it's over, all that matters is what you've done.”

“If we turn our backs of the Scythians who have provoked us, how shamefully shall we march against the revolted Bactrians; but if we pass Tanais and make the Scythians feel, by dear experience, that we are invincible, not in Asia only, it is not to be doubted but that Europe itself, as well as Asia, will come within the bounds of our conquests.”

“You shall, I question not, find a way to the top if you diligently seek for it; for nature hath placed nothing so high that it is out of the reach of industry and valor.”

“Your ancestors came to Macedonia and the rest of Hellas [Greece] and did us great harm, though we had done them no prior injury. I have been appointed leader of the Greeks, and wanting to punish the Persians I have come to Asia, which I took from you.”

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

“Holy shadows of the dead, I'm not to blame for your cruel and bitter fate, but the accursed rivalry which brought sister nations and brother people, to fight one another. I do not feel happy for this victory of mine. On the contrary, I would be glad, brothers, if I had all of you standing here next to me, since we are united by the same language, the same blood and the same visions.”

“My father will anticipate everything. He will leave you and me no chance to do a great and brilliant deed.”

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

“I consider not what Parmenio should receive, but what Alexander should give.”

“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?”

“I foresee a great funeral contest over me.”

“Every light is not the sun.”

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

“Shall I pass by and leave you lying there because of the expedition you led against Greece, or shall I set you up again because of your magnanimity and your virtues in other respects?”

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

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

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

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

“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.”

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

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

“I would rather live a short life of glory than a long one of obscurity.”

“I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.”

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

“So far as I am concerned, I could not be accused of having set eyes, or having wished to set eyes, upon Darius' wife: on the contrary, I have refused even to listen to those who spoke to me of her beauty.”

“For my own part, I would rather excel in knowledge of the highest secrets of philosophy than in arms.”

“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?”

“Shall I, that have destroyed my Preservers, return home?”

“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.”

“Do you not think it a matter worthy of lamentation that when there is such a vast multitude of them [worlds], we have not yet conquered one?”

“Oh! Most miserable wretch that I am! Why have I not learnt how to swim?”

“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?”

“Through every generation of the human race there has been a constant war, a war with fear. Those who have the courage to conquer it are made free and those who are conquered by it are made to suffer until they have the courage to defeat it, or death takes them.”

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

“Sex and sleep alone make me conscious that I am mortal.”

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

“I send you a kaffis of mustard seed, that you may taste and acknowledge the bitterness of my victory.”

“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.”

“I am dying from the treatment of too many physicians.”

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

“We of Macedon for generations past have been trained in the hard school of danger and war”

“There is something noble in hearing myself ill spoken of, when I am doing well.”

“His father is governor of Media, and though he has the greatest command given him of all the rest of my generals, he still covetously desires more, and my being without issue spurs him on to this wicked design. But Philotas takes wrong measures.”

“Let us conduct ourselves so that all men wish to be our friends and all fear to be our enemies.”

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

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

“Bury my body and don't build any monument. Keep my hands out so the people know the one who won the world had nothing in hand when he died.”

“I am involved in the land of a leonine and brave people, where every foot of the ground is like a well of steel, confronting my soldier. You have brought only one son into the world, but everyone in this land can be called an Alexander.”

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

“How great are the dangers I face to win a good name in Athens.”