The Buddha

The Buddha (lived c. 6th-5th century BCE, this quote was recorded by the 3rd century BCE)

"In this world
hostilities are never
appeased by hostility.
But by the absence of hostility
are they appeased.
This is an interminable truth."

• The Dhammapada (Verses on the Way, Chapter 1), recorded in the 3rd century BCE. Translation by Glenn Wallis, 2004.

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The Gospel of Truth (from the Nag Hammadi Library)

The Gospel of Truth (Gnostic Christian text written before the year 180 and rediscovered in the Nag Hammadi Library in 1945) 

"In time Unity will perfect the spaces. It is within Unity that each one will attain himself; within knowledge he will purify himself from multiplicity into Unity, consuming matter within himself like fire, and darkness by light, death by life."

• From "The Gospel of Truth" (c. 180 or older), rediscovered in the Nag Hammadi Library c. 1945, translated by Harold W. Altridge and George W. Macroe. Lieden: E. J. Brill, 1985.

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Mo Tzu

Mo Tzu (theologian and philosopher, 5th century BCE)

"Man' life on earth is as brief as the passing of a team of horses glimpsed through a crack in the wall."

• From the Basic Writings of Mo Tzu (Universal Love, part III, section 16), translated by Burton Watson (Columbia University Press, 1963).

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General Curtis E. LeMay

General Curtis LeMay (c. 1906-1990)

"I'd rather be active, doing almost any demanding interesting thing in the world, than participating in social activities."

• Gen. LeMay wrote this quote bemoaning the social responsibilities of his position as Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force in his autobiographical work, Mission with LeMay: My Story, by Curtis LeMay and MacKinlay Kantor (Doubleday & Company, 1965).

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Aristotle

Aristotle (c. 384-322 BCE)

"Without exchange there would be no association, without equality there would be no exhange, without commensurability there would be no equality."

• From The Nicomachean Ethics (Book V, section V, bekker page 1133b) by Aristotle, translated by J. A. K. Thomson (Penguin Classics, 2004).

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Arrian

Arrian (c. 90-173+)

"Many things which reason rejects acquire some colour of probability once you bring a god into the story."

• The Campaigns of Alexander (Book 7) by Arrian, translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt and revised by J. Hamilton. New York; Penguin Classics, 1971.

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Sun Tzu

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

"He who knows
Neither self
Nor enemy
Will fail
In every battle."

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

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Homer

Homer (flourished c. 700 BCE)

"All his life a guest remembers
the host who has treated him kindly."

• The Odyssey (Book 15) by Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu and edited by D. C. H. Rieu. New York: Penguin Classics, 2009.

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Confucius

Confucius (6th-5th century BCE)

"Is Goodness indeed so far away? If we really wanted Goodness, we should find that it was at our very side."

• From The Analects of Confucius (Book VII, 29) translated by Arthur Waley (Vintage Books, 1989).

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Arnor Earl's-Poet

Arnor Earl's-Poet

"Awkward our choice
when Earls are eager
to fight - friendship
is far from easy."

• This poem is attributed to Arnor Earl's-Poet, an 11th-century skald. The verse was preserved in the Orkneyinga Saga, written c. 1200 by an anonymous Icelander. The translation used here was by Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards (Penguin Classics, 1981).

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Thucydides

Thucydides (c. 460-400 BCE)

"My own opinion is that when the whole state is on the right course it is a better thing for each separate individual than when private interests are satisfied but the state as a whole is going downhill."

• History of the Peloponnesian War (Book II, section 60) by Thucydides, translated by Rex Warner (Penguin Classics, 1972). 

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Chuang Tzu

Chuang Tzu (lived approximately 370-287 BCE)

"The torch of chaos and doubt - this is what the sage steers by. So he does not use things but relegates all to the constant. This is what it means to use clarity."

• From Chuang Tzu: Basic Writings (section 2), translated by Burton Watson. (Columbia University Press, 1996).

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Book of Pslams

The Book of Psalms (a multi-generational work likely finalized between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC)

"Whoever is pregnant with evil
     conceives trouble and gives birth to disillusionment.

Whoever digs a hole and scoups it out
     falls into the pit they have made.

The trouble they cause recoils on them;
     their violence comes down on their own heads."

-Psalms 7:14-16 (New International Version, 1978, 2011)




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Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan (c. 1364-1430)
"You should all resolve to rid yourselves henceforth of silly and irrational ideas, petty jealousies, stubbornness, contemptuous talk or scandalous behavior, all of which are things that twist the  mind and make a person unstable."

• 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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Jarl Rognvald Kali Kolsson of Orkney

Jarl Rognvald Kali of Orkney (ruled approximately 1137-1158)

"I'll pace warily,
give no peace to the plotter,
chance nothing, cherish
the beard on my chin."

• This poem is attributed to Rognvald Kali, a 12th-century jarl (earl) of Orkney. In the poem, the jarl describes his paranoid life amidst the dangerous political climate of medieval Orkney, where multiple jarls precariously shared power over the islands. Rognvald Kali's paranoia was well founded, as he was violently killed in 1158. The verse was preserved in the Orkneyinga Saga, written c. 1200 by an anonymous Icelander. The translation used here was by Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards (Penguin Classics, 1981). 

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Lao Tzu

Lao Tzu (c. 6th-5th century BCE)

"Turning back is how the ways moves;
Weakness is the means the way employs.
The myriad creatures in the world are born from Some-
thing, and Something from Nothing."

• From Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching (Book Two, XL), translated by D. C. Lau (Penguin Classics, 1963).

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Homer

Homer (flourished c. 700 BCE)

"This is the effect of wine - it makes people do crazy things;
it sets the wisest man singing and giggling stupidly; it lures him
on to dance and it makes him blurt out what's better left unsaid."

• The Odyssey (Book 14) by Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu and edited by D. C. H. Rieu. New York: Penguin Classics, 2009. 

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Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin (c. 1706-1790)


"The learned fool writes his nonsense in better languages than the unlearned; but still it is nonsense."

• From Poor Richard's Almanac by Benjamin Franklin (Seven Treasures Publications, 2008).

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Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1342-1400)

"O stormy people, frivolous and fickle,
Void of true judgement, turning like a vane,
Whom every novelty and rumor tickle,
How like the moon you are to wax and wane,
Clapping your praises, shouting your disdain,
False judges, dear at a penny as a rule,
Who trusts to your opinion is a fool."

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

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Luo Guangzhong (in the character of Cao Cao)

Luo Guanzhong (lived between 1315-1400)

"I would rather defeat the world than have the world defeat me!"

• A line attributed to the Chinese warlord, Cao Cao, in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (chapter 4), by Luo Guanzhong and translated by Martin Palmer. New York: Penguin Classics, 2018.

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Brynhild (Saga of the Volsungs)

Brynhild (character from the 13th-century Saga of the Volsungs)

"Control your temper with foolish men at crowded gatherings, for they frequently speak worse than they know."

• From The Saga of the Volsungs (chapter 22), by an anonymous 13th century Icelander, translated by Jesse L. Byock (Penguin Classics, 1990, 1999).

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Christine de Pizan

Christine de Pizan (c. 1364-1430)

"How can men dare to open their mouths when they see that the conduct of those who govern them - who are certainly not women! - is marked by instability and hesitation, just like that of children, and that the resolutions and agreements they come up with in their counsels are rarely put into effect."

• From The Book of the City of Ladies (Part II, chapter 49) by Christine de Pizan, translated by Rosalind Brown-Grant (Penguin Classics, 1999). 

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Thucydides

Thucydides (c. 460-400 BCE)

"True wisdom is shown by those who make careful use of their advantages in the knowledge that things will change."

• History of the Peloponnesian War (Book IV, section 18) by Thucydides, translated by Rex Warner (Penguin Classics, 1972). 

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