"[The Indians] live happily enough,... being simple in their manners, and frugal. They never drink wine except at sacrifice. . . . The simplicity of their laws and their contracts is proved by the fact that they seldom go to law. They have no suits about pledges and deposits, nor do they require either seals or witnesses, but make their deposits and confide in each other. . . . Truth and virtue they hold alike in esteem. . . . The greater part of the soil is under irrigation, and consequently bears two crops in the course of the year. . . . It is accordingly affirmed that famine has never visited India, and that there has never been a general scarcity in the supply of nourishing food."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Quoted in Durant, Will (1963). Our Oriental heritage. New York: Simon & Schuster.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Megasthenes
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Megasthenes
Megasthenes (/mɪˈɡæsθɪniːz/ mi-GAS-thi-neez; Ancient Greek: Μεγασθένης, c. 350 – c. 290 BC) was an ancient Greek historian, diplomat and Indian ethnographer and explorer in the Hellenistic period. He described India in his book Indika, which is now lost, but has been partially reconstructed from literary fragments found in later authors.
7 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Megasthenes →
Related Quotes
"Of several remarkable customs existing among the Indians, there is one prescribed by their ancient philosophers which…"
"[Their] law ordains that no one among them shall, under any circumstances, be a slave, but that, enjoying freedom, th…"
"Megasthenes, for example, who visited the Maurya court at Pataliputra in the fourth century bc, noted: All Indians ar…"
"All Indians are free, and not one of them is a slave."
"We have three versions of a statement by Megasthenes... Pliny (VI. xxl.4-5) reports about the Indians: "From the days…"
"‘[…] the Brahmins […] already knew all those doctrines concerning nature which were subsequently taught by the Greeks.’"
"Εἰμί μὲν οὐ φιλόοινος: ὅταν δ᾽ ἐθέλῃς με μεθύσσαι, πρῶτα σὺ γευομένη πρόσφερε, καὶ δέχομαι. εἰ γὰρ ἐπιψαύσεις τοῖς χε…"
"Εἰργομένη φιλέειν με κατὰ στόμα δῖα Ῥοδάνθη ζώνην παρθενικὴν ἐξετάνυσσε μέσην, καὶ κείνην φιλέεσκεν ἐγὼ δέ τις ὡς ὀχε…"
"Τῇ Παφίῃ στεφάνους, τῇ Παλλάδι τὴν πλοκαμῖδα, Ἀρτέμιδι ζώνην ἄνθετο Καλλιρόη: εὕρετο γὰρ μνηστῆρα τὸν ἤθελε, καὶ λάχε…"
"Εἰ μὲν ἀπὸ Σπάρτης τις ἔφυς, ξένε μή με γελάσσηις· οὐ γὰρ ἐμοὶ μούνηι ταῦτα τέλεσσε Τύχη· εἰ δέ τις ἐξ Ἀσίης, μὴ πένθ…"