Alexander wept when he heard from Anaxarchus that there was an infinite number of worlds, and his friends asking him if any accident had befallen him he returned this answer: "Do you not think it is a matter worthy of lamentation that where there is such a vast multitude of them we have not yet conquered one?"

Another quote →

Source, in full

On the Tranquillity of the Mind. One world is not sufficient; he [Alexander the Great] fumes unhappy in the narrow bounds of this earth. Quoted from Juvenal—Satires. X; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 911-17.

Topics

More quotes by Plutarch

All Plutarch quotes →

You may also like

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Plutarch (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.