“We secure our friends not by accepting favours but by doing them.”

The strong do what they have to do and the weak accept what they have to accept.

Of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a necessary law of their nature they rule wherever they can.

I dread our own mistakes more than the enemy’s intentions.

Wars spring from unseen and generally insignificant causes, the first outbreak being often but an explosion of anger.

Love of power, operating through greed and through personal ambition, was the cause of all these evils.

The secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom is courage.

It is useless to attack men who could not be controlled even if conquered, while failure would leave us in an even worse position.

We Greeks believe that a man who takes no part in public affairs is not merely lazy, but good for nothing.

knowing the secret of happiness to be freedom, and the secret of freedom a brave heart, not idly to stand aside from the enemy’s onset.

For so remarkably perverse is the nature of man that he despises whoever courts him, and admires whoever will not bend before him.

Most people, in fact, will not take the trouble in finding out the truth, but are much more inclined to accept the first story they hear.

Those who really deserve praise are the people who, while human enough to enjoy power, nevertheless pay more attention to justice than they are compelled to do by their situation.

Hope is an expensive commodity. It makes better sense to be prepared.

What made the war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta.

Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.

You shouldn’t feel sorry for the lifestyle you haven’t tasted, but for the one you are about to lose.

We all know the leopard can’t change his stripes.

The Lord that I serve says the impossible is unacceptable.

Women accept their destiny more readily than men.

Do you know, it’s funny, but I never thought of being blind as a disadvantage, and I never thought of being black as a disadvantage.

Not only should you not accept a prize. You should not try to deserve one either.

The difference between a tool and a machine is not capable of very precise distinction; nor is it necessary, in a popular explanation of those terms, to limit very strictly their acceptation.

When you finally accept that it’s OK not to have answers and it’s OK not to be perfect, you realize that feeling confused is a normal part of what it is to be a human being.

Today, the theory of evolution is an accepted fact for everyone but a fundamentalist minority, whose objections are based not on reasoning but on doctrinaire adherence to religious principles.