Hsün Tzu (Xunzi)

Hsün Tzu (c. 312-230 BCE)

"The gentleman uses things; the petty man is used by things."

• From Hsün Tzu's Basic Writings, translated by Burton Watson.

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Al Ghazālī

Al Ghazālī (Sufi Theologian and Philosopher, 1058-1111 CE)

"The final end of the creatures' ascent is the kingdom of singularity. Beyond it, there is no place to climb."

• From The Niche of Lights by Al Ghazālī, translated by David Buchman.

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Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer (1342-1400)

"There Was a Knight, a most distinguished man,
Who from the day on which he first began
To ride abroad had followed chivalry,
Truth, honour, generousness, and courtesy.
He had done nobly in his sovereign's war
And ridden into battle, no man more,
As well in Christian as in heathen places,
And ever honoured for his noble graces."

• From The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, edited into modern English by Nevill Coghill (Penguin Classics edition, 1977).

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Confucius

Confucius (6th and 5th century BCE Chinese philosopher)

"In vain I have looked for a single man capable of seeing his own faults and bringing the charge home against himself."

• From The Analects of Confucius, translated by Arthur Waley (Vintage Books edition, 1989).

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The Malleus Maleficarum (Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger)

The Malleus Maleficarum (Published in 1487 by Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger)

"Hence follows the Catholic teaching, that in order to bring about evil, a witch can and does co-operate with the devil."

• From The Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, translated by Montague Summers.

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St Teresa of Avilla

Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582 CE)

"Self-knowledge is so important that, even if you were raised right up to the heavens, I should like you never to relax your cultivation of it: so long as we are on this earth, nothing matters more to us than humility."

• From St. Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle, translated by E. Allison Peers.

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Athena taunting Ares (Iliad)

Athena (also spelled Athene) taunting Ares
(from The Iliad by Homer)

"You maniac! You idiot! You're done for. You clearly don't
have ears to hear with. Reason, restraint--all gone."

• From The Iliad by Homer (Chapter 15), translated by E. V. Rieu and edited by Peter Jones (Penguin Classics edition, 2014).

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Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BCE)

"Whoever, therefore, applies himself to the study of Eloquence, is at the same time improving his judgement, which is a talent equally necessary in all military operations."

• From Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous Orators, translated by E. Jones.

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Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius (c. 121-180 CE)

"Toys and fooleries at home, wars abroad: sometimes terror, sometimes torpor, or stupid sloth: this is thy daily slavery."

• From Marcus Aurelius' Meditations (Xist Classics edition).

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Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu (c. 6th - 3rd Century BCE)
"I have heard that in war
     Haste can be
     Folly
     But have never seen
     Delay that was
     Wise."

• From Sun Tzu's The Art of War (Chapter Two), translated by John Minford (Penguin Classics edition).

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Odin (from The Prose Edda)

Odin (From The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, 1179-1241)

"A handsome hall stands under the ash beside the well. Out of this hall come three maidens, who are called Urd [Fate], Verdandi [Becoming] and Skuld [Obligation]. These maidens shape men's lives. We call them the norns."

• From The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, translated by Jesse Byock (Penguin Classics edition).

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Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan (1364-1430 CE)

"Together we must construct the houses and buildings inside the walls of the City of Ladies which my sister Reason has now put up...Don't hesitate to mix the mortar well in your inkpot and set to on the masonry work with great strokes of your pen."

• From The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan (Part II, Chapter 1), translated by Rosalind Brown-Grant (Penguin Classics edition).

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Lao Tzu

Lao Tzu (6th and 5th Centuries BCE)

"I have three treasures
Which I hold and cherish.
The first is known as compassion,
The second is known as frugality,
The third is known as not daring to take the lead in the empire."

• From Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching (Book 2, chapter LXVII), translated by D. C. Lau.

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Zeus Scolding Ares (From Homer)

Zeus scolding Ares (from Homer's Iliad)

"You shifty hypocrite, don't come whining to me. I hate you
more than any other god on Olympus. Rivalry, war, fighting--
these are the breath of life to you. Your mother Hera too has
the same headstrong and ungovernable temper."

• From The Iliad by Homer (Chapter 5), translated by E. V. Rieu and edited by Peter Jones (Penguin Classics eition, 2014)

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Gregory of Nazianzus

Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 330-390 CE)

"We have the beard, the humble mien, the bowed head, the subdued voice, the contrived sincerity, the measured gait--everything that goes with wisdom indeed, except a wise mind."

• From Saint Gregory of Nazianzus: Three Poems (autobiographical poems written by Gregory about his experiences as a clergyman) translated by Denis Molaise Meechan.

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Murasaki Shikibu

Murasaki Shikibu (11th century Japanese novelist)

"There will come a time when as this life turns and turns the moon will shine forth:

for a while avert your eyes from an all too cloudy sky."

• From Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji (Chapter 12), translated by Royall Tyler (Penguin Books edition).

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Homer

Homer (wrote around 700 CE)

"Tell me now, you Muses that live on Olympus,
since you are goddesses, are present everywhere and
know everything, while we men have only hearsay
to go on and know nothing - tell me who were the leaders and
commanders of the Greeks?"

• From The Iliad by Homer, translated E. V. Rieu and edited by Peter Jones. The photograph of the Homer statue is licensed under Creative Commons 3.0 (CC 3.0).

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Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1080-1118 CE)

Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081-1118 CE)

According to Anna Komnene (1083-1153), this is the coded message that her father, Alexios Komnenos, sent to Kaiser John Doukas, announcing the revolt that would eventually make Alexios the emperor of Constantinople:

"We have prepared a very fine dish, not without rich savory sauce. If you would like to share the feast, come as soon as you can to sit with us at the perfect banquet."

• From The Alexiad by Anna Komnene, translated by E. R. A. Sewter (Penguin Classics edition).

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Virgil

Virgil (Roman Poet, 70-19 BCE)

"Night and day the gates of shadowy Death stand open wide,
but to retrace your steps, to climb back to the upper air--
there the struggle, there the labor lies."

• From The Aeneid by Virgil, translated by Robert Fagles (Penguin Classics edition).

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Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu (He is loosely dated between the 6th and 3rd Century, BCE, but is thought to have been a contemporary of Confucius)

"The Skillful Warrior attacks
So that the enemy
Cannot defend;
He defends
So that the enemy
Cannot attack."

• From Sun Tzu's The Art of War (Chapter Six), translated by John Minford (Penguin Classics edition). The background pictures is licensed Creative Commons 3.0 (CC 3.0).

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Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881)

"For the direct, the inevitable and the legitimate result of consciousness is to make all action impossible, or--to put it differently--consciousness leads to thumb-twiddling."

• From Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground (chapter V), translated by David Magarshack.

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Christine de Pizan

Christine De Pizan (1364-1430 CE)

"God has given every woman a good brain which she could put to good use, if she so chose, in all the domains in which the most learned and renowned men excel."

• From The Book of the City of Ladies, by Christine de Pizan, translated by Rosalind Brown-Grant (Penguin  Classics edition).

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Loki (From The Prose Edda)

 Loki (from The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, 1179-1241 CE)

"I have a skill in which I am ready to be tested. No one here in the hall will prove quicker than I at eating his food."

• From The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, translated by Jesse Byock (Penguin Classic edition).

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