Top 70 Pindar Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “O my soul, do not aspire to immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible.”

— Pindar

2. “Learn what you are and be such.”

— Pindar

3. “Every gift which is given, even though is be small, is in reality great, if it is given with affection.”

— Pindar

4. “Water is the best of all things.”

— Pindar

5. “Forge thy tongue on an anvil of truth and what flies up, though it be but a spark, will have light.”

— Pindar

6. “Unsung, the noblest deed will die.”

— Pindar

7. “The noblest of the elements is water.”

— Pindar

8. “War is sweet to those who have no experience of it. But the experienced man trembles exceedingly in his heart at its approach.”

— Pindar

9. “War is sweet for those who haven’t experienced it.”

— Pindar

10. “Words have a longer life than deeds.”

— Pindar

11. “Sweet is war to those who know it not.”

— Pindar

12. “Law, the king of all mortals and immortals.”

— Pindar

13. “Man’s pleasure is a short time growing And it falls to the ground As quickly.”

— Pindar

14. “Often silence is the wisest thing for a man to heed.”

— Pindar

15. “Even now I am full of hope, but the end lies in God.”

— Pindar

16. “To each thing belongs it’s measure. Occasion is best to know.”

— Pindar

17. “Even success softens not the heart of the envious.”

— Pindar

18. “Time is the best preserver of righteous men.”

— Pindar

19. “It is God that accomplishes all term to hopes, God, who overtakes the flying eagle, outpasses the dolphin in the sea; who bends under his strength the man with thoughts too high.”

— Pindar

20. “A good deed hidden in silence dies.”

— Pindar

21. “The test of any man lies in action.”

— Pindar

22. “Mother of the Sun, Theia of many names, for your sake men honor gold as more powerful than anything else; and through the value you bestow on them, o queen, ships contending on the sea and yoked teams of horses in swift-whirling contests become marvels.”

— Pindar

23. “Men are the dreams of a shadow.”

— Pindar

24. “Whatever is beautiful is beautiful by necessity.”

— Pindar

25. “A graceful and honorable old age is the childhood of immortality.”

— Pindar

26. “Natural ability is by far the best, but many men have succeeded in winning high renown by skill that is the fruit of teaching.”

— Pindar

27. “For lawless joys a bitter ending waits.”

— Pindar

28. “Success for the striven washes away the effort of striving.”

— Pindar

29. “The race of gods and men is one, and from one mother we both draw our breath. Yet all the difference in our power holds us apart, so that man is nothing, but the brazen floor of heaven is eternally unshakable.”

— Pindar

30. “To bear lightly the neck’s yoke brings strength; but kicking against the goads is the way of failure.”

— Pindar

31. “Humble in a humble state and great in greatness, I will work out the divinity that is busy within my mind.”

— Pindar

32. “Skills vary with the man. We must tread a straight path and strive by that which is born in us.”

— Pindar

33. “With our mortal minds we should seek from the gods that which becomes us.”

— Pindar

34. “I will be small in small things, great among great.”

— Pindar

35. “A thing said walks in immortality if it has been said well.”

— Pindar

36. “If any man thinks to swindle God, he is wrong.”

— Pindar

37. “Convention is the ruler of all.”

— Pindar

38. “Every noble deed dieth, if suppressed in silence.”

— Pindar

39. “When men succeed, even their neighbors think them wise.”

— Pindar

40. “Water is best, but gold shines like fire blazing in the night, supreme of lordly wealth.”

— Pindar

41. “Creatures of a day, what is any one? What is he not? Man is but a dream of a shadow. Yet when there comes as a gift of heaven a gleam of sunshine, there rest upon men a radiant light and, aye, a gentle life.”

— Pindar

42. “In all things rest is sweet; there is sur feit even in honey, even in Aphrodite s lovely flowers.”

— Pindar

43. “Envy, the attendant of the empty mind.”

— Pindar

44. “To be envied is a nobler fate than to be pitied.”

— Pindar

45. “Point thy tongue on the anvil of truth.”

— Pindar

46. “Great deeds give choice of many tales. Choose a slight tale, enrich it large, and then let wise men listen.”

— Pindar

47. “We are things of a day. What are we? What are we not? The shadow of a dream is man, no more.”

— Pindar

48. “Not every truth is the better for showing its face undisguised; and often silence is the wisest thing for a man to heed.”

— Pindar

49. “Wrapt up in error is the human mind, And human bliss is ever insecure; Know we what fortune yet remains behind? Know we how long the present shall endure?”

— Pindar

50. “I will not steep my speech in lies; the test of any person lies in action.”

— Pindar