“Zeus \[…] established his law: wisdom comes through suffering. \[…] So men against their will learn to practice moderation. \[…] Such grace is harsh and violent.” \n— Aeschylus (“Agamemnon”, 176–183)
“She \[Helen] brought to Ilium her dowry, destruction.” \n— Aeschylus (“Agamemnon”, 406)
“In every tyrant's heart there springs in the end this poison, that he cannot trust a friend.” \n— Aeschylus (“Prometheus Bound”, 224–225)
“Time in the long run teaches all things.” \n— Aeschylus (“Prometheus Bound”, 981)
“His resolve is not to seem, but to be, the best.” \n— Aeschylus (“Seven Against Thebes”, 592)
“A prosperous fool is a grievous burden.” \n— Aeschylus (fragment 383)
“The gods help those that help themselves.” \n— Aesop (“Hercules and the Wagoner”)
“It is thrifty to prepare today for the wants of tomorrow.” \n— Aesop (“The Ant and the Grasshopper”)
“Union gives strength.” \n— Aesop (“The Bundle of Sticks”)
“Never trust advice from a man in the throes of his own difficulty.” \n— Aesop (“The Fox and the Goat”)
“Familiarity breeds contempt; acquaintance softens prejudices.” \n— Aesop (“The Fox and the Lion”)
“Self-conceit may lead to self-destruction.” \n— Aesop (“The Frog and the Ox”)
“Slow and steady wins the race.” \n— Aesop (“The Hare and the Tortoise”)
“Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own.” \n— Aesop (“The Lion, the Ass, and the Fox Hunting”)
“Enemies' promises were made to be broken.” \n— Aesop (“The Nurse and the Wolf”)
“Any excuse will serve a tyrant.” \n— Aesop (“The Wolf and the Lamb”)
“If I have done anything noble, that is a sufficient memorial; if I have not, all the statues in the world will not preserve my memory.” \n— Agesilaus II of Sparta (Plutarch, “Moralia”, “Sayings of Spartans”, 215a)
“Spartans do not ask how many, only where the enemy are.” \n— Agis II of Sparta (Plutarch, “Moralia”, “Sayings of Spartans”, 215d)
“Weep not for me, as I suffer unjustly, I am in a happier situation than my murderers.” \n— Agis IV of Sparta upon seeing one of his executioners cry (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Agis”, sec. 20)
“Sex and sleep alone make me conscious that I am mortal.” \n— Alexander the Great (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Alexander”, sec. 22)
“It is very servile to live in luxury, but very royal to toil. \[…] Don't you know that the end and object of conquest is to avoid the vices and infirmities of the subdued?” \n— Alexander the Great (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Alexander”, sec. 40)
“Glorious are the deeds of those who undergo labor and run the risk of danger; and it is delightful to live a life of valor and to die leaving behind immortal glory.” \n— Alexander the Great, addressing his troops (Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”, 5.26)
“I for one think that to a brave man there is no end to labors except the labors themselves, provided they lead to glorious achievements.” \n— Alexander the Great, addressing his troops (Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”, 5.26)
“If I were not Alexander, I should wish to be Diogenes \[of Sinope].” \n— Alexander the Great, impressed by the simplicity of the philosopher he had met (Plutarch, “Moralia”, “On the Fortunes of Alexander the Great”, 332a–b)
“To the strongest!” \n— Alexander the Great, on his death bed, when asked who should succeed him as king (Arrian, “The Anabasis of Alexander”, 7.26)
“I do not steal victory.” \n— Alexander the Great, when suggested to raid the Persians at night (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Alexander”, sec. 31)
“Written laws are like spiders' webs; they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor, but will be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.” \n— Anacharsis (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Solon”, sec. 5)
“The agora is an established place for men to cheat one another, and behave covetously.” \n— Anacharsis, a Scythian philosopher who traveled to Greece (Diogenes Laertius, “The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers”, “Anacharsis”, sec. 5)
“It was not by taking care of the fields, but of ourselves, that we acquired those fields.” \n— Anaxandridas II of Sparta (Plutarch, “Moralia”, “Sayings of Spartans”, 217a)
“States are doomed when they are unable to distinguish good men from bad.” \n— Antisthenes (Diogenes Laertius, “The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers”, “Antisthenes”, sec. 5)
“The fox knows many tricks; the hedgehog one good one.” \n— Archilochus (fragment 201)
“Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the world.” \n— Archimedes, on his usage of the lever (Diodorus Siculus, “The Library of History”, fragments of book XXVI, sec. 18)
“It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls and ships of war.” \n— Aristophanes (“Birds”)
“It is obligatory, especially for a philosopher, to sacrifice even one's closest personal ties in defense of the truth.” \n— Aristotle (“Nicomachean Ethics”, I. 1096a.11)
“Happiness depends on leisure; for we are busy to have leisure, and make war to live in peace.” \n— Aristotle (“Nicomachean Ethics”, X. 1177b.4)
“Man is by nature a political animal.” \n— Aristotle (“Politics”, I. 1253a.2)
“Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.” \n— Aristotle (“Politics, V. 1311a.11)
“I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.” \n— Aristotle (Diogenes Laertius, “The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers”, “Aristotle”, sec. 20)
“I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over the self.” \n— Aristotle (Stobaeus, “Florilegium”, 223)
“Alexander himself, plagued by thirst, with great pain and difficulty nevertheless led the army on foot \[…]. At this time a few of the light-armed soldiers \[…] found some water \[…], poured the water into a helmet and carried it to him. He took it, and commending the men who brought it, immediately poured it upon the ground in the sight of all.” \n— Arrian about Alexander's march through the Gedrosian desert (“The Anabasis of Alexander”, 6.26)
“Thrusting his spear into Mithridates' face, he \[Alexander] hurled him to the ground. Then Rhoesaces \[a Persian] \[…] struck him on the head with his sword. \[…] Alexander hurled him too to the ground, piercing with his lance through his breastplate into his chest. Sphithridates \[a Persian] had already raised his sword against Alexander from behind when Clitus \[…] cut his arm off.” \n— Arrian about the Battle of the Granicus (“The Anabasis of Alexander”, 1.15)
“Let every man remind their descendants that they also are soldiers who must not desert the ranks of their ancestors, or retreat out of cowardice.” \n— Aspasia (Plato, “Menexenus”, 246b)
“Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!” \n— Augustus, after three legions were annihilated in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (Suetonius, “Divus Augustus”, sec. 23)
“In my nineteenth year, on my own initiative and at my own expense, I raised an army with which I liberated the state, which was oppressed by the tyranny of a faction.” \n— Augustus, in his autobiography (“Res Gestae Divi Augusti”, sec. 1)
“Wars, both civil and foreign, I waged throughout the world, on sea and land, and when victorious I spared all citizens who sued for pardon. The foreign nations which could with safety be pardoned I preferred to save rather than to destroy.” \n— Augustus, in his autobiography (“Res Gestae Divi Augusti”, sec. 3)
“Choose the course which you adopt with deliberation; but when you have adopted it, then persevere in it with firmness.” \n— Bias of Priene (Diogenes Laertius, “The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers”, “Bias”, sec. 5)
“How stupid it was for the king to tear out his hair in grief, as if baldness were a cure for sorrow.” \n— Bion of Borysthenes (Cicero, “Tusculan Disputations”, III. 26)
“He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him.” \n— Bion of Borysthenes, referring to a wealthy miser (Diogenes Laertius, “The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers”, “Bion”, sec. 50)
“Woe to the Defeated!” \n— Brennus, Gaulish chieftain who had seized Rome (with the exception of a garrison on Capitoline Hill). When Camillus arrived from Veii and besieged him, he negotiated his withdrawal for 1000 pounds of gold, but not without using false weights and adding the weight of his sword on the scale when the Romans complained (Polybius, “Histories”, II. 18)
“Robbery, slaughter, plunder, they \[the Romans] deceivingly name empire; they make a wasteland and call it peace.” \n— Calgacus, Caledonian chieftain in a speech before the Battle of Mons Graupius (Tacitus, “Agricola”, 30)
“Set a thief to catch a thief.” \n— Callimachus (“Epigrams”, 44)
“All mankind rules its women, and we rule all mankind, but our women rule us.” \n— Cato the Elder (Plutarch, “Moralia”, “Sayings of Romans”, 198e)
“The worst ruler is one who cannot rule himself.” \n— Cato the Elder (Plutarch, “Moralia”, “Sayings of Romans”, 198f)
“Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.” \n— Cato the Elder (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Cato the Elder”, sec. 9)
“Moreover, I consider that Carthage should be destroyed.” \n— Cato the Elder, who ended all speeches in his later life with this statement (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Cato the Elder”, sec. 27)
“We did not flinch but gave our lives to save Greece when her fate hung on a razor's edge.” \n— Corinthian epitaph to their fallen of the Persian Wars (Plutarch, “Moralia”, “On the Malice of Herodotus”, 870e)
“Then the blood really flowed, for the two lines were so close that shield struck against shield, and they drove their swords into each other's faces. It was impossible for the weak or cowardly to retreat; man to man they fought like in single combat.” \n— Curtius Rufus about the Battle of Issus (“Histories of Alexander the Great”, III. 11.5)
“I am Cyrus, who won for the Persians their empire. Therefore do not begrudge me this bit of earth that covers my bones.” \n— Cyrus the Great's epitaph (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Alexander”, sec. 69)
“I am Darius, the great king, king of kings, the king of Persia, the king of countries, \[…] 23 lands in total.” \n— Darius I (Behistun inscription, column I, 1–6)
“Phraortes was captured and brought before me. I cut off his nose, his ears, and his tongue, and I put out one eye, and he was kept in chains at my palace entrance, and all the people saw him. Then I crucified him in Ecbatana; and the men who were his foremost followers \[…] I flayed and hung out their skins, stuffed with straw.” \n— Darius I (Behistun inscription, column II, 32)
“By desiring little, a poor man makes himself rich.” \n— Democritus (fragment)
“It is hard to be governed by one's inferior.” \n— Democritus (fragment)
“Physical strength is only noble in cattle, it is strength of character that is noble in men.” \n— Democritus (fragment)
“It is not possible to found a lasting power upon injustice, perjury, and treachery.” \n— Demosthenes, in one of his many speeches against the rising Philip II of Macedon (“Olynthiac II”, 10)
“Delivery, delivery, delivery.” \n— Demosthenes, when asked what were the three most important elements of rhetoric (Cicero, “De Oratore”, 3.213)
“The Macedonians first raised an unearthly shout followed by the Persians answering, so that the whole hillside bordering the battlefield echoed back the sound, and that second roar was louder than the Macedonian war cry as five hundred thousand men shouted with one voice.” \n— Diodorus Siculus about the Battle of Issus (“The Library of History”, XVII., sec. 33)
“Brasidas, taking his stand on the gangway, fought off from there the multitude of Athenians who converged upon him. And at the outset he slew many as they came at him, but after a while, as numerous missiles assailed him, he suffered many wounds on the front of his body.” \n— Diodorus Siculus, on a brave Spartan at the Battle of Pylos (“The Library of History”, XXII., sec. 62)
“Plato had defined man as an animal, biped and featherless, and was applauded. Diogenes \[of Sinope] plucked a fowl and brought it into the lecture-room with the words: Here is Plato's man. In consequence of which there was added to the definition: having broad nails.” \n— Diogenes Laertius (“The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers”, “Diogenes”, sec. 40)
“I am a citizen of the world.” \n— Diogenes of Sinope (Diogenes Laertius, “The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers”, “Diogenes”, sec. 63)
“It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours.” \n— Diogenes of Sinope (Stobaeus, “Florilegium”, 51)
“Yes, stand a little out of my sunshine.” \n— Diogenes of Sinope to Alexander the Great, who asked if he could help in in any way (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Alexander”, sec. 14)
“The victor is not victorious if the vanquished does not consider himself so.” \n— Ennius (“Annales”, fragment 31.493)
“Stranger, go tell the Spartans that we lie here, obedient to their laws.” \n— Epitaph at Thermopylae for Leonidas and his men (Herodotus, “The Histories”, VII. 228)
“A coward turns away, but a brave man's choice is danger.” \n— Euripides (“Iphigenia in Tauris”)
“Brave men are made bolder by ordeals, but cowards achieve nothing.” \n— Euripides (“Iphigenia in Tauris”)
“Cowards do not count in battle; they are there, but not in it.” \n— Euripides (“Meleager”)
“Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.” \n— Euripides (“Pirithous”)
“Return with your shield, or on it.” \n— Farewell of Spartan women to their warriors, implying that cowards would throw away their shield in battle to flee (Plutarch, “Moralia”, “Sayings of Spartan Women”, 241f)
“I came, I saw, I conquered.” \n— Caesar, after routing Pharnaces II of Pontus in the first assault (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Caesar”, sec. 50)
“Men willingly believe what they wish.” \n— Caesar (“De Bello Gallico”, III. 18)
“It is not the well-fed long-haired man I fear, but the pale and the hungry looking.” \n— Caesar (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Antony”, sec. 11)
“After fighting from noon almost to sunset, with victory doubtful, the Germans, on one side charged the enemy in a compact body, and drove them back; and, when they were put to flight, the archers were surrounded and cut to pieces.” \n— Caesar about the Battle of Alesia (“De Bello Gallico”, VII. 80)
“All the centurions of the fourth cohort were slain, and the standard-bearer killed, the standard itself lost, almost all the centurions of the other cohorts either wounded or slain, and among them the chief centurion of the legion, Publius Sextius Baculus, a very valiant man, who was so exhausted by many and severe wounds, that he was already unable to support himself.” \n— Caesar about the Battle of the Sabis (“De Bello Gallico”, II. 25)
“But the enemy \[…] displayed such great courage, that when the front rank had fallen the men behind them stood on them and continue the fight from on top of the corpses; when these were killed the pile of bodies grew higher, while the survivors used the heap as a vantage point for throwing missiles at our men, or catching our spears and throwing them back.” \n— Caesar about the Battle of the Sabis (“De Bello Gallico”, II. 27)
“The die is cast.” \n— Caesar, when crossing the Rubicon river with his legion into Italy, a capital offense that led to his civil war against Pompey (Suetonius, “The Lives of the Twelve Caesars”, 32)
“I'd rather be the first man here than the second man in Rome.” \n— Caesar, when passing through a barbarian village in the Alps (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Caesar”, sec. 11)
“Stop quoting laws, we carry weapons!” \n— Pompey (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Pompey”, sec. 10)
“If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out.” \n— Hammurabi (Hammurabi's Code, sec. 196)
“I have come not to make war on the Italians, but to aid the Italians against Rome.” \n— Hannibal (Polybius, “Histories”, III. 85)
“Let us now end the anxiety of the Romans, who can't wait for the death of an old man.” \n— Hannibal's last words before his suicide, in exile with Flaminius pressuring the local ruler to hand him over (Livy, “History of Rome”, XXXIX. 51)
“Most inhuman and most arrogant of nations, they \[the Romans] reckon the world as theirs and subject to their pleasure. With whom we are to be at war, with whom at peace, they think it right that they should determine.” \n— Hannibal, addressing his troops (Livy, “History of Rome”, XXI. 44)
“You must be brave and discard all hopes of anything but victory or death.” \n— Hannibal, addressing his troops (Livy, “History of Rome”, XXI. 44)
“War is the father and king of all things: some he has made gods, and some men; some slaves and some free.” \n— Heraclitus (Hippolytus, “The Refutation of all Heresies”, IX. 4)
“You could not step twice into the same river.” \n— Heraclitus (Plato, “Cratylus”, 402a)
“It is better to be envied than to be pitied.” \n— Herodotus (“The Histories”, III. 52)
“In soft regions are born soft men.” \n— Herodotus (“The Histories”, IX. 122)
“This is the bitterest pain among men, to have much knowledge but no power.” \n— Herodotus (“The Histories”, IX. 16)
“Although he \[Xerxes] had plenty of troops he had few men.” \n— Herodotus (“The Histories”, VII. 210)
“The Lacedaemonians \[Spartans] fought a memorable battle; they made it quite clear that they were the experts, and that they were fighting against amateurs.” \n— Herodotus (“The Histories”, VII. 211)
“Being informed \[…] that when the Barbarians discharged their arrows they obscured the light of the sun by the multitude of the arrows, he \[Dieneces] \[…] said that their guest \[…] brought them very good news, for if the Medes obscured the light of the sun, the battle against them would be in the shade and not in the sun.” \n— Herodotus describing Dieneces, reputedly the bravest Spartan soldier at Thermopylae (Polybius, “Histories”, VII. 226)
“The judgment given to Croesus by each of the two oracles \[Delphi and Thebes] was the same: If he sent an army against the Persians, he would destroy a great empire.” \n— Herodotus, later mentioning that the empire Croesus destroyed was his own (“The Histories”, I. 53)
“He \[King Darius] asked who the Athenians were, and, being informed, called for his bow, and placing an arrow on the string, shot upward into the sky, saying, as he let fly the shaft: Grant me, Zeus, to revenge myself on the Athenians!” \n— Herodotus, narrating how the Athenian support for the Ionian revolt caught the wrath of Darius I, the Persian king (“The Histories”, V. 105)
“He \[King Darius] asked one of his servants every day, when his dinner was spread, three times to repeat to him: Master, remember the Athenians!” \n— Herodotus, narrating how the Athenian support for the Ionian revolt lead to the Persian Wars (“The Histories”, V. 105)
“Conquered Greece took captive her savage conqueror and brought her arts into rustic Latium.” \n— Horace (“Epistles”, epistle I., 156–157)
“Anger is a momentary madness, so control your passion or it will control you.” \n— Horace (“Epistles”, epistle II., 62)
“It is your concern when your neighbor's wall is on fire.” \n— Horace (“Epistles”, epistle XVIII., 84)
“It is sweet and honorable to die for one's country.” \n— Horace (“Odes”, III., ode II., 13)
“I am Cyrus, king of the world…” \n— Inscription (Cyrus Cylinder)
“In peace the sons bury their fathers, but in war the fathers bury their sons.” \n— Croesus, king of Lydia (Herodotus, “The Histories”, I. 87)
“Whoever imposes severe punishment becomes repulsive to the people; while he who awards mild punishment becomes contemptible. But whoever imposes punishment as deserved becomes respectable.”\n— Kauṭilya (“Arthashastra”, I.4.8–10)
“If a king is energetic, his subjects will be equally energetic.”\n— Kauṭilya (“Arthashastra” I.19.1)
“Marry a good man, and bear good children.” \n— Leonidas, to his wife who asked what to do if he died, before he left for Thermopylae (Plutarch, “Moralia”, “Sayings of Spartans”, 225a)
“Come and get them!” \n— Leonidas, to the Persian messenger who demanded that he and his men lay down their arms (Plutarch, “Moralia”, “Sayings of Spartans”, 225c)
“Some were discovered lying there alive, with thighs and tendons slashed, baring their necks and throats and bidding their conquerors drain the remnant of their blood. Others were found with their heads buried in holes dug in the ground. They had apparently made these pits for themselves.” \n— Livy, describing the aftermath of the Battle of Cannae, where Hannibal inflicted the greatest defeat on the Romans in all their history (“History of Rome”, XXII. 51)
“There lay thousands upon thousands of Romans \[…]. Here and there amidst the slain rose a gory figure whose wounds had begun to throb with the chill of dawn, and was cut down by his enemies.” \n— Livy, describing the aftermath of the Battle of Cannae, where Hannibal inflicted the greatest defeat on the Romans in all their history (“History of Rome”, XXII. 51)
“A city is well-fortified which has a wall of men instead of brick.” \n— Lycurgus of Sparta (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Lycurgus”, sec. 19)
“Escape, yes, but this time with my hands, not my feet.” \n— Brutus, before committing suicide after losing a battle against Caesar's avengers (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Brutus”, sec. 52)
“O, the times, O, the customs!” \n— Cicero (“Against Catiline”, I.)
“A war is never undertaken by the ideal State, except in defense of its honor or its safety.” \n— Cicero (“De Re Publica”, III., 23)
“The first duty of a man is the seeking after and the investigation of truth.” \n— Cicero (“On Duties”, I., 13)
“No one is so old as to think that he cannot live one more year.” \n— Cicero (“On Old Age”, sec. 24)
“Let the welfare of the people be the ultimate law.” \n— Cicero (“On the Laws”, III., sec. 3)
“Endless money forms the sinews of war.” \n— Cicero (“Philippics”, V., sec. 5)
“Laws are silent in time of war.” \n— Cicero (“Pro Milone”, IV., sec. 11)
“That, Senators, is what a favour from gangs amounts to. They refrain from murdering someone; then they boast that they have spared him!” \n— Cicero, condemning Mark Anthony who had not killed him (yet) (“Philippics”, II., sec. 5)
“He did not even stand up to review his fleet when the ships were already at their fighting stations, but lay on his back and gazed up at the sky, never rising to show that he was alive until Marcus Agrippa had routed the enemy.” \n— Mark Antony, taunting Augustus who delegated his duties as naval commander (Suetonius, “Divus Augustus”, sec. 16)
“We live, not as we wish to, but as we can.” \n— Menander (“Lady of Andros”, fragment 50)
“The man who runs may fight again.” \n— Menander (“Monosticha”)
“Whom the Gods love dies young.” \n— Menander (“The Double Deceiver”, fragment 4)
“I call a fig a fig, a spade a spade.” \n— Menander (fragment 545 K)
“The greatest glory is won from the greatest dangers. When our fathers faced the Persians their resources could not compare to ours. In fact, they gave up even what they had. Then by wise counsels and daring deeds, not fortune and material advantages, they drove out the invaders and made our city what it is now.” \n— Pericles (Thucydides, “History of the Peloponnesian War”, I. 144.3–4)
“Instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all.” \n— Pericles in his Funeral Oration for Athenians that died in the first year of the war (Thucydides, “History of the Peloponnesian War”, II. 40.2)
“We alone do not think that a man ignorant of politics interferes with nothing, we think he is good for nothing.” \n— Pericles in his Funeral Oration for Athenians that died in the first year of the war (Thucydides, “History of the Peloponnesian War”, II. 40.2)
“Future ages will wonder at us, as the present age wonders at us now.” \n— Pericles in his Funeral Oration for Athenians that died in the first year of the war (Thucydides, “History of the Peloponnesian War”, II. 41.5)
“When you realize the power of Athens, consider it was won by valiant men who knew their duty, had a sense of dishonor in fight and, if their enterprises failed, would rather give their lives than lack in civic virtue.” \n— Pericles in his Funeral Oration for Athenians that died in the first year of the war (Thucydides, “History of the Peloponnesian War”, II. 43.2)
“To heroes all earth is their tomb, and their virtues are remembered far from home where an epitaph declares them, in an unwritten record of the mind that will outlast any monument.” \n— Pericles in his Funeral Oration for Athenians that died in the first year of the war (Thucydides, “History of the Peloponnesian War”, II. 43.3)
“Understand that happiness depends on freedom, and freedom depends on courage.” \n— Pericles in his Funeral Oration for Athenians that died in the first year of the war (Thucydides, “History of the Peloponnesian War”, II. 43.4)
“Wait for the wisest of all counsellors, time.” \n— Pericles, a cautious politician who avoided war (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Pericles”, sec. 18)
“Your empire is now like a tyranny: it may have been wrong to take it; it is certainly dangerous to let it go.” \n— Pericles, addressing the Athenian assembly after a plague had weakened the city (Thucydides, “History of the Peloponnesian War”, II. 63.3)
“War is sweet to those who have no experience of it, but the experienced man fears its approach in his heart.” \n— Pindar (fragment 110)
“Themistocles robbed his fellow citizens of spear and shield, and degraded the people of Athens to the rowing-pad and the oar.” \n— Plato, no friend of the Athenian navy (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Themistocles”, sec. 3)
“No guest is so welcome in a friend's house that he will not become a nuisance after three days.” \n— Plautus (“The Swaggering Soldier”, Act III, scene 1, 146)
“You cannot eat your cake and have it too, unless you think your money is immortal.”\n— Plautus (“Trinummus”, Act II, scene 4, 13–14)
“He \[Alexander] thought nothing invincible for the courageous, and nothing secure for the cowardly.” \n— Plutarch (“Parallel Lives”, “Alexander”, sec. 58)
“One \[…] shot an arrow at him with such accuracy and force that it pierced his breastplate and got stuck in his ribs. \[…] Alexander recoiled and sank to his knees. \[…] At last Alexander killed the barbarian. But he received many wounds, at last was struck on the neck with a mace, and leaned against the city wall, his eyes still fixed upon his foes.” \n— Plutarch about the Mallian Campaign (“Parallel Lives”, “Alexander”, sec. 63)
“When the pirates demanded a ransom of twenty talents for him, Caesar burst out laughing. They did not know, he said, who it was that they had captured, and he volunteered to pay fifty.” \n— Plutarch, who mentions later that Caesar got his money back and had his captors crucified (“Parallel Lives”, “Caesar”, sec. 2)
“They \[the Romans] want the centurions not so much to be adventurous and daredevils, as to be natural leaders, of a steady and reliable spirit. They do not so much want men who will initiate attacks and open the battle, but men who will hold their ground when beaten and hard-pressed, and will be ready to die at their posts.” \n— Polybius (“Histories”, VI. 24)
“The Roman battle line is hard to break, since it allows every man to fight both individually and collectively; so that a formation can fight in any direction, with the maniples nearest to the point of danger wheeling around to face it.” \n— Polybius (“Histories”, XV. 15)
“The Athenian people are always in the position of a ship without a commander. Fear of the enemy or a storm make the crew be of one mind and obey the helmsman, everything goes well; but if they recover \[…] they quarrel with each other \[…], and the result has often been that, after escaping the dangers of the widest seas and the most violent storms, they wreck their ship in harbor and close to shore.” \n— Polybius on the Athenian constitution (“Histories”, VI. 44)
“Most of the Romans were trampled to death by the enormous weight of the elephants; the rest were shot down in their ranks by the numerous cavalry: and there were only a very few who attempted to save themselves by flight.” \n— Polybius on the Battle of Bagradas where a Roman army was annihilated during the First Punic War (“Histories”, I. 34)
“Hannibal gave the signal for attack; and at the same time sent orders to the troops lying in ambush on the hills to do the same, and thus delivered an assault upon the enemy at every point at once.” \n— Polybius on the beginning of a Roman disaster at the Trasymene Lake (“Histories”, III. 84)
“In the phalanx, the men cannot turn around singly and defend themselves: this tribune, therefore, charged them \[from behind] and killed all he could get at; until, unable to resist, they were forced to throw away their shields and flee.” \n— Polybius, describing the defeat of Philip V. of Macedon by Flaminius in the Battle of Cynoscephalae (“Histories”, XVIII. 26)
“The Roman order on the other hand is flexible: for every Roman, once armed and on the field, is equally well equipped for every place, time, or appearance of the enemy. He is, moreover, quite ready and needs to make no change, whether he is required to fight in the main body, or in a detachment, or in a single maniple, or even by himself.” \n— Polybius, explaining how the Romans can defeat the Macedonian phalanx (“Histories”, XVIII. 32)
“Scipio \[Aemilianus], when he looked upon the city \[Carthage] as it was utterly perishing and in the last throes of its complete destruction, is said to have shed tears and wept openly for his enemies. And realized that all cities, nations, and authorities must, like men, meet their doom.” \n— Polybius, eyewitness to the destruction of Carthage (“Histories”, XXXVIII. 22)
“One more such victory and the cause is lost!” \n— Pyrrhus of Epirus after the Battle of Asculum, in which the Romans lost twice as many men but he lost a greater share of his armed forces (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Pyrrhus”, sec. 21)
“None can be free who is a slave to, and ruled by, his passions.” \n— Pythagoras (Stobaeus, “Florilegium”, 18)
“Do not say few things in many words, but many things in few words.” \n— Pythagoras (Stobaeus, “Florilegium”, 24)
“Let your speech be better than silence, or be silent.” \n— Pythagoras (Stobaeus, “Florilegium”, 24)
“Unity strengthens even small states, while discord undermines the mightiest empires.” \n— Sallust (“The Jugurthine War”, 10.6)
“Ungrateful fatherland, you will not even have my bones!” \n— Scipio Africanus in his epitaph, after he who defeated Hannibal was repeatedly accused of crimes by the Roman Senate (Valerius Maximus, “Nine books on memorable deeds and sayings”, 5.3.2)
“Prepare for war, since you have been unable to endure a peace.” \n— Scipio Africanus, replying to Hannibal's offer of peace terms before the Battle of Zama (Livy, “History of Rome”, XXX. 31)
“But tactical science is only one part of generalship. A general must be capable of equipping his forces and providing for his men. He must also be inventive, hardworking, and watchful, bullheaded and brilliant, friendly and fierce, straightforward and subtle.” \n— Socrates (Xenophon, “Memorabilia”, 3.1.6)
“It is necessary to know the strength of the city and of the enemy, so that, if the city is stronger, one may recommend her to go to war, but if weaker than the enemy, may persuade her to beware.” \n— Socrates (Xenophon, “Memorabilia”, 3.6.9)
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates, in his defense when trialled for corrupting the youth and not worshipping the proper gods (he later drank hemlock after the death sentence) \n— Plato (“Apology”, 38a)
“The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways – I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows.” Socrates, in his defense when trialled for corrupting the youth and not worshipping the proper gods (he later drank hemlock after the death sentence) \n— Plato (“Apology”, 42a)
“Walls and ships are nothing without men living together inside them.” \n— Sophocles (“Oedipus Rex”)
“We accepted an empire that was offered to us and refused to give it up under the pressure of three of the strongest motives: fear, honor and interest. It was not we who set the example, for it has always been the law that the weak should be subject to the strong.” \n— Speech of an Athenian embassy in Sparta (Thucydides, “History of the Peloponnesian War”, I. 76.2)
“He could boast that he found a city of brick and left it a city of marble.”\n— Suetonius, commenting on the many building projects of Augustus in Rome (“Divus Augustus”, 28.3)
“Moderation in all things.” \n— Terence (“The Girl from Andros”, 61)
“Fortune favors the bold.” \n— Terence in a play about a great Athenian admiral (“Phormio”, 203)
“I do not know how to tune the lyre or play the harp, but I do know how to raise a city that was small and unimportant to glory and greatness.” \n— Themistocles, defending his lack of cultural sophistication (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Themistocles”, sec. 2)
“Strike, if you will, but listen.” \n— Themistocles, in a heated discussion with the Spartan fleet commander who threatened to beat him with his staff, before the Battle of Salamis (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Themistocles”, sec. 11)
“The Athenians command the rest of Greece, I command the Athenians; your mother commands me, and you command your mother.” \n— Themistocles, jokingly to his infant son (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Themistocles”, sec. 18)
“So little pains does the mob take in finding out the truth, accepting readily the first story at hand.” \n— Thucydides (“History of the Peloponnesian War”, I. 21.3)
“The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this caused in Sparta, made war inevitable.” \n— Thucydides (“History of the Peloponnesian War”, I. 23.6)
“War is a matter not so much of arms as of money.” \n— Thucydides (“History of the Peloponnesian War”, I. 83.2)
“It is a general rule of human nature that people despise those who treat them well, and look up to those who make no concessions.” \n— Thucydides (“History of the Peloponnesian War”, III. 39.5)
“This was the greatest action that happened in all this war, and all others that we have heard of amongst the Greeks, being to the victors most glorious and most calamitous to the vanquished. For they were utterly and at all points defeated, and their sufferings were many. Army and fleet and all they ever had perished, nothing was saved and few of so many ever returned home. Thus ended the Sicilian expedition.” \n— Thucydides (“History of the Peloponnesian War”, VII. 87.6–7)
“As the world goes, justice is only a matter between equals, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.” \n— Thucydides, describing Athenians addressing the defeated Melians who are unwilling to surrender (“History of the Peloponnesian War”, V. 89.1)
“When the Lacedaemonians were no longer able to run after them, the skirmishers \[…] all charged them at once, casting stones, arrows, and darts to the closest man at hand.” \n— Thucydides, describing the Spartan disaster at the Battle of Sphacteria (“History of the Peloponnesian War”, IV. 34.2)
“The wild beasts of Italy have their caves to retire to, but the brave veterans who spilled their blood in her cause have nothing left but air and light. They wander around homeless with their wives and children.”\n— Tiberius Gracchus, advocating for land reform to the benefit of homeless and unemployed veterans whose lands had often been bought up while they were on campaign. (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Tiberius Gracchus”, 9.4–5)
“The soldiers fight and die to support others in wealth and luxury and they are called masters of the world without owning a single piece of farmland of their own.”\n— Tiberius Gracchus, advocating for land reform to the benefit of homeless and unemployed veterans whose lands had often been bought up while they were on campaign. (Plutarch, “Parallel Lives”, “Tiberius Gracchus”, 9.5)
“Do not trust the horse, Trojans! I fear the Greeks even when they bring gifts.” \n— Virgil (“Aeneid”, II. 48–49)
“Prepared for either alternative.” \n— Virgil (“Aeneid”, II. 61)
“Homer and Hesiod ascribed to their Gods all things that are a disgrace among mortals: stealing, adultery, deceiving one another.” \n— Xenophanes (fragment 11)
“If oxen and horses and lions had hands, and could paint, and produce works of art as men do, horses would paint the forms of the gods like horses, and oxen like oxen, and make their God's bodies each in their own image.” \n— Xenophanes (fragment 15)
“The Ethiopians make their gods black and snub-nosed, the Thracians say theirs have blue eyes and red hair.” \n— Xenophanes (fragment 16)
“These are the right questions to ask, in winter around the fire \[…]: Who are you, friend? What is your land? And how old were you when the Medes \[Persians] came?” \n— Xenophanes, likely referring to a punitive expedition against Greek cities in Ionia (fragment 17)
“A prudent commander will never take risks unnecessarily, except when it is clear beforehand that he will have the advantage.” \n— Xenophon (“The Cavalry General”, 4.13)
“Attack the enemy where he is weakest, even if that is a long way off, since hard work is less dangerous than a struggle against superior forces.” \n— Xenophon (“The Cavalry General”, sec. 4.14)
“He should be inventive, ready to exploit all circumstances, to make a small force appear large and a large one small, to appear absent when close at hand, and within striking distance when a long way off.” \n— Xenophon (“The Cavalry General”, sec. 5)
“People are glad to obey the man whom they believe to be wiser than themselves in pursuing their interests.” \n— Xenophon (“The Education of Cyrus”, 1.6.22)
“In his campaigns during summer the general must show that he can endure the sun better than the soldiers, in winter he must show he can endure cold better; and throughout all difficulties that he can endure hardships better. This will help to make him loved by his men.” \n— Xenophon (“The Education of Cyrus”, 1.6.25)
“Battles are decided more by the morale of men than their physical strength.” \n— Xenophon (“The Education of Cyrus”, 3.3.20)
“Let's not give them enough time to arrange a defense, or to even recognize that we are human beings! We've got to appear to them like an uncontrollable nightmare of shields, swords, battle-axes and spears!” \n— Xenophon (“The Education of Cyrus”, 4.2.22)
“I suppose you understand, men, that pursuing, dealing blows and death, plunder, fame, freedom, power – all these are prizes for the winners; the cowardly, of course, suffer the reverse.” \n— Xenophon (“The Education of Cyrus”, 7.1.13)
“The man who wants that must be scheming and cunning, wily and deceitful, a thief and a robber, overreaching the enemy at every point.” \n— Xenophon on how best to gain advantage over the enemy (“The Education of Cyrus”, 1.6.26)
“My men have turned into women, and my women into men!” \n— Xerxes, watching Artemisia ram a ship while most of his fleet suffered the reverse, not knowing that the sunk vessel was his own (Herodotus, “The Histories”, VIII. 88)
“For a thinking man is where Wisdom is at home.” \n— Zoroaster, founder of the Zoroastrian religion (“Ahunuvaiti Gatha”, yasna 30.9)
