The Buddha

The Buddha (this saying recorded by disciples c. 3rd century BCE)

"You should not indulge negligence
or be intimate with sensual delight.
Meditating diligently,
one obtains abundant ease."

• The Dhammapada (Verses on the Way, Chapter 2), recorded in the 3rd century BCE. Translation by Glenn Wallis, 2004.

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Thucydides

Thucydides (c. 460-400 BCE)

"War gives peace its security, but one is still not safe from danger if, for the sake of quiet, one refuses to fight."

• History of the Peloponnesian War (Book I) by Thucydides, translated by Rex Warner (Penguin Classics, 1972).

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Saint Augustine

St. Augustine (c. 354-430)

"You know indeed how to pull down old structures and build new ones' you, though, have remained in the old, worn-out ruins of yourself, where you should have been pulling down the old structures in yourself, so that you would no longer savor the things of earth."

• From The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, Part III, vol. 10, translated by Edmund Hill. Sermon: St. Augustine's "Sermon on the Dispute with the Donatists."

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Tacitus

Tacitus (c. 56/57-117)

"Command and planning count more than weapon-wielding and physique."

• From The Annals of Imperial Rome (Chapter 11), by Tacitus, translated by Michael Grant (Penguin Classics, 1996).

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Homer

Homer (flourished 700 BCE)

"There's nothing like an ambush for
bringing a man's worth to light and picking out the wretches
from the brave."

• From The Iliad (Book 13) by Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu and revised by Peter Jones (Penguin Classics, 2014).

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Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1342-1400)

"Consider too how hard the stone we tread
Under our feet! That very rock and bed
On which we walk is wasting as it lies.
Time will be when the broadest river dries
And the great cities wane and last descend
Into the dust, for all things have an end."

• From The Canterbury Tales (The Knight's Tale) by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated into modern English by Nevill Coghill (Penguin Classics, 2003).

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Mencius

Mencius (4th Century BCE)

"When one realizes that something is morally wrong, one should stop it as soon as possible. Why wait for next year?"

• From The Mencius (Book III, Part B) by Mencius, translated by D. C. Lau (Penguin Classics, 2003).

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Heraclitus

Heraclitus (c. 540-480 BCE)

"Men who love wisdom must be knowers of a great many things."

•  From fragment 35 (b) of Heraclitus, translated by Diels-Kranz, c. 1951-52.

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Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan (c. 1364-1430)

"My dear ladies, remember how these men accuse you of being weak, flighty and easily led, and yet still use the most convoluted, outlandish and bizarre methods they can think of to trap you, just as one would a wild animal. Fly, fly from them, my ladies."

• From The Book of the City of Ladies (Part III, chapter 19) by Christine de Pizan, translated by Rosalind Brown-Grant (Penguin Classics, 1999).

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Sima Qian

Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE), speaking as Master Li (flourished 3rd century BCE)


"To a king the people are 'heaven,' and to the people food is 'heaven.'"

• From a speech delivered by Master Li in the Records of the Grand Historian (Shi Ji, 97) by Sima Qian. Translated by Burton Watson (Columbia University Press, 1993).
  
  
  
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Thucydides

Thucydides (c. 460-400 BCE)

"There is often no more logic in the course of events than there is in the plans of men, and this is why we usually blame out luck when things happen in ways that we did not expect."

• History of the Peloponnesian War (Book I) by Thucydides, translated by Rex Warner (Penguin Classics, 1972).

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Bersi Skald-Torfuson (Grettir's Saga)

Bersi Skald-Torfuson (in the anonymous Grettir's Saga, written c. 14th century)

"Certainly you can see, my lord, that it is better to spare one man and in return have the thanks of many."

• Spoken by Bersi Skald-Torfuson to the Norwegian Jarl Svein (co-ruler of Norway, r. 1000-1015) in a scene from the anonymously written Grettir's Saga (c. 14th century), translated by Jesse Byock (Oxford World's Classics, 2009).

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Aristotle

Aristotle (c. 384-322 BCE)

"Most people seem to owe their deception to pleasure, which appears to them to be a good although it is not; consequently they choose what is pleasant as a good, and avoid pain as an evil."

• From The Nicomachean Ethics (Book III, section iv) by Aristotle, translated by J. A. K. Thomson (Penguin Classics, 2004).

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Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe (c. 1809-1849)

"Truth lies in the huge abysses where wisdom is sought - not in the palpable palaces where she is found."

• From Edgar Allan Poe's letter to Mr. B- (c. 1831) in Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Works (JKL Classics, 2017).

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Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu (sayings recorded c. 6th-3rd century BCE)

"He who advances
     Without seeking
     Fame,
     Who retreats
     without escaping
     Blame,
     He whose one aim is
     To protect his people
     And serve his lord,
     This man is
     A Jewel of the Realm."

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

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Homer

Homer (flourished c. 700)

"Young people are thoughtless as a rule."

• The Odyssey (Book 7) by Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu and edited by D. C. H. Rieu. New York: Penguin Classics, 2009.

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Plutarch

Plutarch (c. 50-120)

"There is no difference between a friend and a mercenary except that the former is kept by the way he is treated and addressed, and the latter by money."

• On Sparta (Life of Cleomenes), excerpted from Plutarch's Parallel Lives, translated by Richard J. A. Talbert. New York: Penguin Classics, 2005.

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Aristotle

Aristotle (c. 384-322 BCE)

"One swallow does not make a summer; neither does one day. Similarly, neither can one day, or a brief space of time, make a man blessed and happy."

• From The Nicomachean Ethics (Book I, section vii) by Aristotle, translated by J. A. K. Thomson (Penguin Classics, 2004).

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Anna Komnene

Anna Komnene  (c. 1083-1153)

"What happens to us at the hands of others should not bring war on those who have done no wrong; and if the war has no just pretext, then all is lost--ships, arms, men, the whole of our military preparation."

• From The Alexiad (Book I) by Anna Komnene, translated by E.R.A. Sewter, (Penguin Classics, 2009). 

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Thucydides

Thucydides (c. 460-400 BCE)

"Different eye-witnesses give different accounts of the same events, speaking out of partiality for one side or the other or else from imperfect memories."

• History of the Peloponnesian War (Book I) by Thucydides, translated by Rex Warner (Penguin Classics, 1972).

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Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1342-1400)

"Changeable Fortune, O unstable Chance,
Thine is the scorpion's treacherous advance!
Thy head all flattery, about to sting,
Thy tail a death, and death by poisoning.
O Brittle joy, O venom sweet and strange,
O monster that so subtly canst arrange
Thy gifts and colour them with all the dyes
Of durability to catch the wise
And foolish too!"

• From The Canterbury Tales (The Merchant's Tale) by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated into modern English by Nevill Coghill (Penguin Classics, 2003).

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