Sima Qian

Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE)

"No profit comes to an army that has to fight 1,000 miles from home."

• From a speech attributed to Han Anguo in the Records of the Grand Historian (Shi Ji, 108) by Sima Qian. Translated by Burton Watson (Columbia University Press, 1993).

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Emperor Romanos I

Emperor Romanos I (r. 919-944)

"You are here today, tomorrow you will dissolve into dust and ashes."

• From A Synopsis of Byzantine History by John Skylitzes (c. 1040-1101), translated by John Wortley (Cambridge University Press, 2010).

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Sun Tzu

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

"Men who have
 Faced death
 Can achieve anything"

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

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Thucydides

Thucydides (c. 460-400 BCE)

"When dealing with an enemy it is not only his actions but his intentions that have to be watched, since if one does not act first, one will suffer first."

• From a speech attributed to Athenagoras of Syracuse in the History of the Peloponnesian War (Book VI, section 38) by Thucydides, translated by Rex Warner (Penguin Classics, 1972).

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Lao Tzu

Lao Tzu (6th-5th century BCE)

"The net of heaven is cast wide. Though the mish is not
fine, yet nothing ever slips through."

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

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Brasidas (Sayings of the Spartans)

Brasidas (d. 422 BCE)

"There is nothing so tiny that it lacks the courage to repel its assailants and save itself."

• Quote attributed to the Spartan general, Brasidas, recoreded in the Sayings of the Spartans, presumably collected by Plutarch, included in On Sparta, translated by Richard J. A. Talbert. New York: Penguin Classics, 2005.

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Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin (c. 1706-1790)

"Don't throw stones at your neighbors' of your own windows are glass."

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

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Bede

Bede (c. 673-735)

"If some people of whatever rank or order try to hold back or hinder your good beginnings, do you for your part, mindful of heavenly reward, strive to bring to a firm conclusion your purposeful and holy policy."

• From Bede's letter to Bishop (later Archbishop) Egbert of York, dated to May 26, 734. Included in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People (and relevant letters), translated by Leo Sherley-Pride, R. E. Latham and D. H. Farmer (Penguin Classics, 2003).

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Homer

Homer (flourished 700 BCE)

"I have known men who saved their country, even though their own people were inferior, by relying on their own brute force, their bravery and their numbers."

• From The Iliad (Book 17, approx. line 330) by Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu and revised by Peter Jones (Penguin Classics, 2014).

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The Buddha

The Buddha (c. 6th-5th century BCE)

"Diligence is the path to the deathless.
Negligence is the path of death.
The diligent do not die.
Those who are negligent
are as the dead.

Understanding this distinctly,
those who are skilled in diligence
rejoice in diligence,
delighting in the pasture of the noble ones."

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

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Sima Qian

Sima Qian (c. 145-90 BCE)

"How tremendous are the benefits brought by these bodies of water, and how terrible the damages!"

• Records of the Grand Historian (Shi Ji 29) by Sima Qian. Translated by Burton Watson (Columbia University Press, 1993).

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Miyamoto Musashi

Miyamoto Musashi (c. 1584-1645)

"The essence of this book is that you must train day and night in order to make quick decisions. In strategy it is necessary to treat training as part of normal life with your spirit unchanging."

•  From Miyamoto Musashi's The Book of Five Rings, translated by V. Harris (Lord Majesty Productions, 2005 edition).

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Luo Guanzhong

Luo Guanzhong (14th century)

"Wise advice can counter the influence of treacherous officials, if and when it is heeded."

• The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (chapter 2) by Luo Guanzhong and translated by Martin Palmer. New York: Penguin Classics, 2018.  

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Reginald Scot

Reginald Scot (c. 1537-1599)

"I am also well assured, that if all the old women in the world were witches; and all the priests, conjurers: we would not have a drop of raine, nor a blast of wind the more or lesse for them. For the Lord hath bound the waters in the clouds, and hath set bounds about the waters until the daie and night come to an end."

• From page 2 of Discoverie of Witchcraft (published 1584), by Reginald Scot (c. 1537-1599).

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Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin (c. 1706-1790)

"Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that have no wit enough to be honest."

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

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Gregory of Tours

Gregory of Tours (c. 539-594)

"What are you trying to do? You have everything you want! Your homes are full of luxuries, there are vast supplies of wine, grain and oil in your store-houses, and in your treasuries the gold and silver are piled high. Only one thing is lacking: you cannot keep peace, and therefore you do not know the grace of God."

• The History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours (Book V, Preface), translated by Lewis Thorpe. New York: Penguin Classics, 1971.

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Tacitus

Tacitus (c. 56/57-117+)

"It seems to me a historian's foremost duty [is] to ensure that merit is recorded, and to confront evil deeds and words with the fear of posterity's denunciations."

• The Annals of Imperial Rome (Book III, section 65), by Tacitus, translated by Michael Grant (Penguin Classics, 1996).

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Epicurus

Epicurus (c. 341-270 BCE)

"We say that pleasure is the starting-point and the end of living blissfully. For we recognize pleasure as a good which is primary and innate."

• From Epicurus' Letter to Menoeceus, translated in Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics by A. A. Long (University of California Press, 1986).

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Hjalti (Saga of Hrolf Kraki)

Hjalti (character from the Saga of Hrolf Kraki)

"It is not possible to bend fate, nor can one stand against nature."

• From The Saga of Hrolf Kraki, written by an anonymous 14th century Icelander, and translated by Jesse Byock. New York: Penguin Classics, 1998.

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Confucius

Confucius (c. 551-479 BCE)

"The Good Man rests content with Goodness; he that is merely wise pursues Goodness in the belief that it pays to do so."

• The Analects of Confucius (Book IV, section 2) translated by Arthur Waley (Vintage Books, 1989). 

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King Cleomenes III of Sparta

King Cleomenes III of Sparta (r. 235-222 BCE)

"The man who despairs in the face of difficulties and hardships, or of public censure and opinion, is defeated by his own feebleness."

• Quote attributed to Cleomenes III in Plutarch's Life of Cleomenes, excerpted from Plutarch's Parallel Lives, translated by Richard J. A. Talbert. New York: Penguin Classics, 2005.

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