Herodotus

Herodotus (Ancient Greek Historian, 490-425-420 BCE)

"No one is fool enough to choose war instead of peace - in peace sons bury fathers, but in war fathers bury sons."

• From The Histories by Herodotus, translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt and revised by John Marincola (Penguin Classics, 2002).

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Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE)

"Why should he hazard the loss of any of his men, even in a successful battle? Why should he expose soldiers to be wounded, who had deserved so well of him? Why, in short, should he tempt fortune? especially when it was as much a general's duty to conquer by tactics as by the sword."

• From Julius Caesar's War Commentaries (Commentaries on the Civil War). The statue of Caesar used in the quote picture is licensed as Creative Commons 3.0, (CC 3.0).

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Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer (English poet, 1342-1400 CE)

"Laws are for all, and he who seeks to lay them
On others should by rights himself obey them."

• From The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by Nevill Coghill (Penguin Classics, 2003).

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Anna Komnene

Anna Komnene (Princess of the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire, 1083-1153 CE)

"The truth is, all barbarians are usually fickle and by nature are unable to keep their pledges."

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

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Herodotus

Herodotus (490-425/420 BCE)

"Right and wrong were distinguished long ago - and I'll tell you one thing that is right: a man should mind his own business."

• From The Histories by Herodotus, translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt and revised by John Marincola (Penguin Classics, 2002).

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Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche (1864-1900)

'We modern men are the heirs of the conscience-vivisection and self-torture of millennia: this is what we have practiced longest, it is our distinctive art perhaps, and in any case our subtlety in which we have acquired a refined taste."

• From Friedrich Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals, translated by Walter Kaufmann.

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Homer

Homer (8th and 7th century BCE Greek poet)

"When men work in pairs, one sees advantages the other would
miss, while a man on his own may see the possibilities, but lack
the necessary imagination and intelligence."

• From The Iliad (Book 10) by Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu and edited by Peter Jones (Penguin Classics, 2014).

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Snorri Sturluson

Snorri Sturluson ( Icelandic Chief, 1179-1241 CE)

"Then Third said, 'Odin is the highest and oldest of the gods. He rules in all matters, and, although the other gods are powerful, all serve him as children do their father.'"

• From The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, translated by Jesse Byock (Penguin Classics, 2005).

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The Buddha

The Buddha

"If, like a piece of metal when struck,
you yourself do not resound,
can it be that you have achieved unbinding
- there is no anger found in you?"

• From The Dhammapada (chapter 10) translated by Glenn Wallis, 2004.

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Virgil

Virgil (Roman poet, 70-19 BCE)

"Come,
with the first light of day, our spirits high,
let's explore the land."

• From The Aeneid by Virgil, translated by Robert Fagles (Penguin Classics, 2010).

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Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer (1342-1400 CE)

"Properly pasted was this miller's head,
Pale-drunk he was, he'd passed the stage of red;
Hiccupping through his nose he talked and trolled
As if he'd asthma or a heavy cold."

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

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Christine De Pizan

Christine de Pizan (1364-1430 CE)

"There's nothing like a whole range of different experiences and activities for expanding the mind of any rational creature."

• From The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan translated by Rosalind Brown-Grant (Penguin Classics, 1999). The image of Christine de Pizan is licensed as Creative Commons 2.0 (CC 2.0).

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Martin Heidegger

Martin Heidegger (German Philosopher, 1889-1976)

"In the broadest sense, death is a phenomenon of life. Life must be understood as a kind of being to which belongs a being-in-the-world."

• From Marin Heidegger's Being And Time (translated by Joan Stambaugh).

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Mencius

Mencius (4th and 3rd Century BCE Chinese Philosopher)

"Benevolence is the heart of man, and rightness his road."

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

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Geoffrey of Monmouth

Geoffrey of Monmouth (12th century British Historian)

"Victory is not won by any particular commander, but rather by those who shed their blood for him in the fighting."

• From Geoffrey of Monmouth's The History of the Kings of Britain, completed in 1136 CE, translated from Latin into English by Lewis Thorpe (Penguin Classics, 1966). 

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Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu (recorded between the 6th and 3rd century BCE)

"Ultimate excellence lies
Not in winning
Every battle
But in defeating the enemy
Without ever fighting."

• From Sun Tzu's The Art of War (Chapter Three), translated by John Minford (Penguin Classics, 2009).

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Snorri Sturluson

Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241 CE)

"'How should battle be referred to?'
'By calling it the wind, tumult and din of weapons, and of shields, and of Odin, and of the Valkyrie and of invading kings.'"

• From The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, translated by Jesse Byock. New York: Penguin Classics, 2005.

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Tertullian

Tertullian (2nd and 3rd century CE)

"When people who are upright and good assemble, when the pious and virtuous gather together, the meeting should be called not a secret society but a senate."

• From Apology by Tertullian, edited by Rudolph Arbesmann.

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Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer (1342-1400 CE)

"If one means well why bother to feel queasy?
It's good for people to be free and easy."

• From The Canterbury Tales (The Knight's Tale) by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by Nevill Coghill. New York: Penguin Classics, 1951.

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Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

"Anything for the battle. Politics will have to be sorted out later."

• From a telegraph sent from Winston Churchill to United States General Eisenhower in 1942, recorded by Richard Wigg in Churchill and Spain: The Survival of the Franco Regime 1940-1945. The portrait of Churchill is licensed as Creative Commons 4.0 (CC 4.0).

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Han Fei Tzu

Han Fei Tzu (lived around 280-233 BCE)

"If law does not command respect, then all the ruler's actions will be endangered. If penalties are not enforced, then evil will never be surmounted."

• From Han Fei Tzu's Basic Writings, translated by Burton Watson (Columbia University Press, 1964).

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General William Tecumseh Sherman

General William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891 CE)

"I have seen a detailed soldier, who got only his monthly pay of eight dollars a month, and twenty cents a day for extra duty, nailing on weather-boards and shingles, alongside a citizen who was paid sixteen dollars a day. This was a real injustice, made the soldiers discontented, and it was hardly to be wondered at that so many deserted."

• From the Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by General Sherman. Renaissance Classics, 2012.

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