“Remember that this greatness was won by men with courage, with knowledge of their duty, and with a sense of honor in action.”

Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and respect of self, in turn, is the chief element in courage.

Men’s indignation, it seems, is more exited by legal wrong than by violent wrong; the first looks like being cheated by an equal, the second like being compelled by a superior.

Now the only sure basis of an alliance is for each party to be equally afraid of the other.

When tremendous dangers are involved, no one can be blamed for looking to his own interest.

Knowledge without understanding is useless.

Be convinced that to be happy means to be free and that to be free means to be brave. Therefore do not take lightly the perils of war.

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.

And it is certain that those who do not yield to their equals, who keep terms with their superiors, and are moderate towards their inferiors, on the whole succeed best.

It is from the greatest dangers that the greatest glory is to be won.

We Greeks are lovers of the beautiful, yet simple in our tastes, and we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness.

Human nature is the one constant through human history. It is always there.

War is a matter not so much of arms as of money.

The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Sparta, made war inevitable.

An avowal of poverty is no disgrace to any man; to make no effort to escape it is indeed disgraceful.

The whole earth is the sepulchre of famous men.

The Thracian people, like the bloodiest of the barbarians, being ever most murderous when it has nothing to fear.