Shahnameh Quotes

“I turn to right and left, in all the earth
I see no signs of justice, sense or worth:
A man does evil deeds, and all his days
Are filled with luck and universal praise;
Another's good in all he does - he dies
A wretched, broken man whom all despise.”
― Abolghasem Ferdowsi, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings

“But all this world is like a tale we hear -
Men's evil, and their glory, disappear.”
― Abolghasem Ferdowsi, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings

“Such is the passing that you must leave,
All men must die, and it is vain to grieve.”
― Abolghasem Ferdowsi, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings

“Our lives pass from us like the wind, and why
Should wise men grieve to know that they must die?
The Judas blossom fades, the lovely face
Of light is dimmed, and darkness takes its place.”
― Abolghasem Ferdowsi, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings

“I am deathless, I am the eternal Lord
For I have spread the seed of the Word.”
― ابوالقاسم فردوسی / Abolghasem Ferdowsi, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings

“And while one is brought up with luxury and caresses, and is thrown bewildered and despairing into a dark pit, another is lifted from the pit and raised to a throne where a jeweled crown is placed on his head. The world has no shame in doing this; it is prompt to hand out both pleasure and pain and has no need of us an our doings.”
― Abolghasem Ferdowsi, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings

“بیا تا جهان را به بد نسپریم
به کوشش همه دست نیکی بریم
نباشد همی نیک و بد پایدار
همان به که نیکی بود یادگار”
― Abolqasem Ferdowsi, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings

“From moment then to moment their desire
Gained strength, and wisdom fled before love's fire;
Passion engulfed them, and these lovers lay
Entwined together till the break of day.”
― Abolghasem Ferdowsi, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings

“فریدون فرخ فرشته نبود
ز مشک و ز عنبر سرشته نبود
به داد و دهش یافت این نیکویی
تو داد و دهش کن، فریدون تویی”
― Abolqasem Ferdowsi, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings

“Listen: this story's one you ought to know,
You'll reap the consequence of what you sow.
This fleeting world is not the world where we
Are destined to abide eternally:
And for the sake of an unworthy throne
You let the devil claim you for his own.
I've few days left here, I've no heart for war,
I cannot strive and struggle any more,
But hear an old man's words: the heart that's freed
From gnawing passion and ambitious greed
Looks on kings' treasures and the dust as one;
The man who sells his brother, as you've done,
For this same worthless dust, will never be
Regarded as a child of purity.
The world has seen so many men like you,
And laid them low: there's nothing you can do
But turn to God; take thought then for the way
You travel, since it leads to Judgment Day”
― Firdowsi, Shahnameh of Firdowsi (Persian) - 10 volumes including index

“اگر مرگ داد است، بیداد چیست؟
ز داد این همه بانگ و فریاد چیست؟”
― Abolqasem Ferdowsi, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings

“جهانا سراسر فسوسی و باد
بتو نیست مرد خردمند شاد”
― ابوالقاسم فردوسی / Abolghasem Ferdowsi, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings

“My father always insisted that Persians basically did not have a home, except in their literature, especially their poetry. This country, our country, he would say, has been attacked and invaded numerous times, and each time, when Persians had lost their sense of their own history, culture and language, they found their poets as the true guardians of their true home.” - Foreword by Azar Nafisi”
― Dick Davis, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings

“I have built a high palace that will never disappear. No rain, no wind will destroy it.”
― Abolqasem Ferdowsi, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings

“I've reached the end of this great history
And all the land will fill with talk of me
I shall not die, these seeds I've sown will save
My name and reputation from the grave,
And men of sense and wisdom will proclaim,
When I have gone, my praises and my fame.”
― Ferdowsi, The Shah Namah: The Epic of Kings

“For Persians, Shahnameh is like their identity papers, their conclusive evidence that they have lived. Against the brutality of time and politics, against the threat of constant invasions and destructions imposed on them by enemies alien and domestic, against a reality they had little or no control over, they created magnificent monuments in words, they reasserted both their own worth and the best achievements of mankind through a work like Shahnameh, the golden thread that links one Persian to the other, connecting the past to the present.” - Foreword by Azar Nafisi”
― Dick Davis, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings

“جهانا مپرور چو خواهی درود
چو می بدروی، پروریدن چه سود؟
برآری یکی را به چرخ بلند
سپاریش ناگه به خاک نژند”
― Abolqasem Ferdowsi, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings

“Zahhak reigned for a thousand years, and from end to end the world was his to command. The wise concealed themselves and their deeds, and devils achieved their heart’s desire. Virtue was despised and magic applauded, justice hid itself away while evil flourished; demons rejoiced in their wickedness, while goodness was spoken of only in secret.”
― Abolqasem Ferdowsi, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings

“The man with the sharp scythe who cuts down the fresh and withered plants, and who listens to no entreaties, is time the reaper and we are like the plants who are cut down, grandfather and grandchild alike, since he looks at neither young nor old but cuts down all in his path. This is the way of the world, and no man is born from his mother but to die.”
― Ferdowsi, Shahname

“Until the Day of Judgment my sword shall not see its scabbard; my horse beneath me will be my throne, my feet will be nowhere but in the stirrups, and my crown will be my helmet. I shall not sleep or rest until I have taken my revenge; the rivers flow with less water than my eyes flow with tears. May the king’s soul be resplendent among his glorious peers, and may you comfort yourselves with the knowledge of God’s justice, so that your hearts find peace. We are all born for death; we belong to death, and we have given our heads into its keeping.”
― Abolqasem Ferdowsi, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings

“KAIUMARS FIRST SAT UPON THE THRONE OF PERSIA, AND WAS MASTER OF the world. He took up his abode in the mountains, and clad himself and his people in tiger-skins, and from him sprang all kindly nurture and the arts of clothing, till then unknown.”
― Abolqasem Ferdowsi, The Epic of Kings- Hero Tales of Ancient Persia