The most hateful human misfortune is for a wise man to have no influence.

the Egyptians were the first to discover the solar year, and to portion out its course into twelve parts both the space of time and the seasons which they delimit. It was observation of the course of the stars which led them to adopt this divisionIt is also the Egyptians who first bought into use the names of the twelve gods, which the Greeks adopted from them

If an important decision is to be made, they [the Persians] discuss the question when they are drunk, and the following day the master of the house where the discussion was held submits their decision for reconsideration when they are sober. If they still approve it, it is adopted; if not, it is abandoned. Conversely, any decision they make when they are sober, is reconsidered afterwards when they are drunk.

I am bound to tell what I am told, but not in every case to believe it.

As the old saw says well: every end does not appear together with its beginning.

My men have become women, but the women men.

Far better it is to have a stout heart always and suffer one's share of evils, than to be ever fearing what may happen.