travels with herodotus

what a great book!

my first encounter with ryszard kapuscinski just totally drew me into his world. an amazing book blending a few of my favourite topics: travel, history, the modern and the ancient world, discovery. if you come accross it, read it!

one of my favourite parts...
"...For all intents and purposes, [such people] do not grow attached to anything, do not put down deep roots. Their empathy is sincere, but superficial. If asked which of the countries they have visited they like best, they are embarrassed - they do not know how to answer. Which one? In a certain sense - all of them. There is something compelling about each. To which country would they like to return once more? Again, embarrassment - they had never asked themselves such a question. The one certainty is that they would like to be back on the road, going somewhere. To be on their way again - that is the dream."

and yet another one of the many gems and anecdotes hidden in the book:

"...Croesus personally received Solon and ordered his servants to show him his treasures, and, certain that the sight of them astonished his guest, he queried him: "So I really want to ask you whether you have ever come across anyone who is happier than everyone else?"

But Solon did not flatter him in the least and instead cited as the happiest of men several heroically fallen Athenians, adding: "Croesus, when you asked me about men and their affairs, you were putting your question to someone who is well aware of how utterly jealous the divine is, and how it is likely to confound us. Anyone who lives for a long time is bound to see and endure many things he would rather avoid. I place the limit of a man's life at seventy years. Seventy years makes 25,200 days...No two days bring events which are exactly the same. It follows, Croesus, that human life is entirely a matter of chance...

"Now, I can see that you are extremely rich and that you rule over large numbers of people, but I won't be in a position to say what you're asking me to say about you until I find out that you died well...Until [a man] is dead, you had better refrain from calling him happy, and just call him fortunate...

"It is necessary to consider the end of everything...and to see how it will turn out, because the god often offers prosperity to men, but then destroys them utterly and completely."