„Ne remets pas à demain ce que tu peux faire aujourd'hui.“
— Alexandre le Grand
Blaise de Montluc affirme qu'Alexandre le Grand en avait fait sa devise.
Alexandre le Grand citations
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Alexandre le Grand
Date de naissance: 20. juillet 356 av. J.-C.
Date de décès: 10. juin 323 av. J.-C.
Autres noms: Alexandr Makedonský Veliký, Alexander der Große
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Alexandre le Grand ou Alexandre III de Macédoine , né le 21 juillet 356 av. J.-C. à Pella , mort le 11 juin 323 av. J.-C. à Babylone , est un roi de Macédoine et l’un des personnages les plus célèbres de l’Antiquité.
Fils de Philippe II, élève d’Aristote et roi de Macédoine à partir de 336 av. J.-C., il devient l’un des plus grands conquérants de l’histoire. Il fait de son petit royaume le maître de l’immense empire perse achéménide, s’avance jusqu’aux rives de l’Indus et fonde près de soixante-dix cités, dont la majorité porte le nom d’Alexandrie.
La notoriété d’Alexandre s’explique principalement par sa volonté de conquête de l'ensemble du monde connu. Cette aspiration, à la fois illusoire et pourtant presque réalisée, avant qu’il ne meure subitement à l’âge de trente-deux ans, a pour conséquence — durant un temps très court — une unité politique jamais retrouvée ensuite entre l’Occident et l’Orient.
L’héritage d’Alexandre, marqué par sa volonté de fusionner les cultures grecque et orientale, est partagé entre ses généraux pour former les différents royaumes et dynasties de la période hellénistique.
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écrivain et philosophe françaisCitations Alexandre le Grand
„Au plus digne.“
— Alexandre le Grand
A ses amis lui demandant à qui il donnait l'empire.
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„Je me garde l'espérance.“
— Alexandre le Grand
Alors qu'Alexandre distribuait de l'argent à ses amis, Perdiccas refusa et demanda ce qu'Alexandre se gardait...
„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.“
— Alexander the Great
As quoted in the Historia Alexandri Magni of Pseudo-Kallisthenes, 1.15.1-4
„A king does not kill messengers.“
— Alexander the Great
Context: 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.
As quoted in the Historia Alexandri Magni of Pseudo-Kallisthenes, 1.37.9-13
„There is nothing impossible to him who will try.“
— Alexander the Great
On taking charge of an attack on a fortress, in Pushing to the Front, or, Success under Difficulties : A Book of Inspiration (1896) by Orison Swett Marden, p. 55
„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.“
— Alexander the Great
Addressing the dead Hellenes (the Athenean and Thebean Greeks) of the Battle of Chaeronea, as quoted in Historiae Alexandri Magni by Quintus Curtius Rufus
„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.“
— Alexander the Great
Context: 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!
Addressing his troops prior to the Battle of Issus, as quoted in Anabasis Alexandri by Arrian Book II, 7
„For my part, I assure you, I had rather excel others in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and dominion.“
— Alexander the Great
Quoted by Plutarch in Life of Alexander http://books.google.com/books?id=vWIOAAAAYAAJ&q=%22for+my+part+I+assure+you+I+had+rather+excel+others+in+the+knowledge+of+what+is+excellent+than+in+the+extent+of+my+power+and+dominion%22&pg=PA167#v=onepage from Plutarch's Lives as translated by John Dryden (1683)
„Dinocrates, I appreciate your design as excellent in composition, and I am delighted with it, but I apprehend that anybody who should found a city in that spot would be censured for bad judgement. For as a newborn babe cannot be nourished without the nurse's milk, nor conducted to the approaches that lead to growth in life, so a city cannot thrive without fields and the fruits thereof pouring into its walls.“
— Alexander the Great
Vitruvius, De Architectura Bk. 2, Introduction, Sec. 3
„If it were not my purpose to combine barbarian things with things Hellenic, to traverse and civilize every continent, to search out the uttermost parts of land and sea, to push the bounds of Macedonia to the farthest Ocean, and to disseminate and shower the blessings of the Hellenic justice and peace over every nation, I should not be content to sit quietly in the luxury of idle power, but I should emulate the frugality of Diogenes. But as things are, forgive me Diogenes, that I imitate Herakles, and emulate Perseus, and follow in the footsteps of Dionysos, the divine author and progenitor of my family, and desire that victorious Hellenes should dance again in India and revive the memory of the Bacchic revels among the savage mountain tribes beyond the Kaukasos…“
— Alexander the Great
As quoted in "On the Fortune of Alexander" by Plutarch, 332 a-b
„Know ye not that the end and object of conquest is to avoid doing the same thing as the conquered?“
— Alexander the Great
As quoted in Lives by Plutarch, VII, "Demosthenes and Cicero. Alexander and Caesar" (40.2), as translated by Bernadotte Perrin
„I consider not what Parmenion should receive, but what Alexander should give.“
— Alexander the Great
On his gifts for the services of others, as quoted in Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: Giving the Derivation, Source, or Origin of Common Phrases, Allusions, and Words That Have A Tale To Tell (1905) by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, p. 30
Variant: It is not what Parmenio should receive, but what Alexander should give.
quoted in Alexander : A History of the Origin and Growth of the Art of War from Earliest Times to the Battle Of Ipsus, B. C. 301 (1899) by Theodore Ayrault Dodge
„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.“
— Alexander the Great
Alexander's letter to Persian king Darius III of Persia in response to a truce plea, as quoted in Anabasis Alexandri by Arrian; translated as Anabasis of Alexander by P. A. Brunt, for the "Loeb Edition" Book II 14, 4
„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?“
— Alexander the Great
As quoted in Lives by Plutarch, as translated by Arthur Hugh Clough
