Alexander The Great Quotes

Upon the conduct of each determines the fate of all

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.

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

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

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

An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep.

I do not steal victory.

Holy shadows of the dead, I am 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.
[Addressing the dead Hellenes of the Battle of Chaeronea]

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

With the right attitude, self imposed limitations vanish

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

Now that the wars are coming to an end, I wish you to prosper in peace. May all mortals from now on live like one people in concord and for mutual advancement. Consider the world as your country, with laws common to all and where the best will govern irrespective of tribe. I do not distinguish among men, as the narrow-minded do, both among Greeks and Barbarians. I am not interested in the descendance of the citizens or their racial origins. I classify them using one criterion: their virtue. For me every virtuous foreigner is a Greek and every evil Greek worse than a Barbarian. If differences ever develop between you never have recourse to arms, but solve them peacefully. If necessary, I should be your arbitrator.

Remember, upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all." ― Alexander the Great

When we give someone our time, we actually give a portion of our life that we will never take back.

A tomb now suffices him for whom the world was not enough.
[Alexander's tombstone epitaph]

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?

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

There are no more worlds to conquer!

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.

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

There is nothing immpossible to him who will try

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

Are there no more worlds that I might conquer?

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?

Every light is not the sun.

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

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 consider not what Parmenio should receive, but what Alexander should give.

Upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all.

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.

Heaven cannot brook two suns, nor earth two masters.

Our enemies are Medes and Persians, men who for centuries have lived soft and luxurious lives; we of Macedon for generations past have been trained in the hard school of danger and war. Above all, we are free men, and they are slaves. There are Greek troops, to be sure, in Persian service - but how different is their cause from ours! They will be fighting for pay - and not much of at that; we, on the contrary, shall fight for Greece, and our hearts will be in it. As for our foreign troops - Thracians, Paeonians, Illyrians, Agrianes - they are the best and stoutest soldiers in Europe, and they will find as their opponents the slackest and softest of the tribes of Asia. And what, finally, of the two men in supreme command? You have Alexander, they - Darius!

My treasure lies in my friends .

I am dying with the help of too many physicians.

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.

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

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

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

{His teacher was the legendary philosopher Aristotle}