Procopius

Procopius (c. 490-565)

"While cleverness is appropriate to rhetoric, and inventiveness to poetry, truth alone is appropriate to history."

• From The History of the Wars (Book I, section 1) by Procopius, translated by H. B. Dewing (Harvard University Press, originally published 1914).

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Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin (c. 1706-1790)

"Nothing brings more pain than too much pleasure; nothing more bondage than too much liberty."

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

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Xenophon

Xenophon (c. 420-350 BCE)

"Let us be the ones who first arouse others to demonstrate their valour. Prove yourselves the best possible officers! Prove yourselves more worthy of command than your commanders!"

• Anabasis Kyrou (Upcountry March of Cyrus, Book III, section 1) by Xenophon and translated by Robin Waterfield (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

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Mencius

Mencius (c. 372-289 BCE)

"When the aged wear silk and eat meat and the masses are neither cold nor hungry, it is impossible for their prince not to be a true king."

• From The Mencius (Book I, Part A, section 7) by Mencius, translated by D. C. Lau (Penguin Classics, 2003).

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Thucydides

Thucydides (c. 460-400 BCE)

"Do not be led astray by a false sense of honour - a thing which often brings men to ruin when they are faced with obvious danger that somehow affects their pride."

• History of the Peloponnesian War (Book V, section 111) by Thucydides, translated by Rex Warner (Penguin Classics, 1972).

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Severus of Minorca

Severus of Minorca (flourished c. 418)

"As I see it, you thirst for our blood, while we thirst for your salvation."

• Quote from Severus of Minorca's Letter on the Conversion of the Jews, translated by Scott Bradbury (Clarendon Press, 1996), and reprinted in Christianity in Late Antiquity, edited by Bart D. Ehrman and Andrew S. Jacobs
  (Oxford University Press, 2004).

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Livy

Livy (c. 59 BCE-17 CE)

"Political decisions, however, always have been, and always will be, influenced for ill by party spirit and concern for property."

• The History of Rome (Book 2, section 29) by Livy, translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt. New York: Penguin Classics, 2002. 

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Mo Tzu

Mo Tzu (c. 5th century BCE)

"Those who strive to overthrow others simply drive the people to their death. What the people long for is life, and what they hate most is death."

• From the Basic Writings of Mo Tzu (Honoring the Worthy, part II, section 9), translated by Burton Watson (Columbia University Press, 1963).

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Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius (c. 121-180)

"Look within; within is the fountain of all good. Such a fountain, where springing waters can never fail, so thou dig still deeper and deeper."

• From the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Book VII, meditation XXXI, (Xist Publishing edition, 2015).

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Confucius

Confucius (c. 551-479 BCE)

"[A gentleman] does not grieve that people do not recognize his merits; he grieves at his own incapacities."

• The Analects of Confucius (Book XIV, section 32) translated by Arthur Waley (Vintage Books, 1989).

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Saint Teresa of Avila

Saint Teresa of Avila (c. 1515-1582)

"My head sounds just as if it were full of brimming rivers, and then as if all the water in those rivers came suddenly rushing downward; and a host of little birds seem to be whistling, not in the ears, but in the upper part of the head, where the higher part of the soul is said to be."

• From Interior Castle (Fourth Mansions, chapter I) by St. Teresa of Avila, translated by E. Allison Peers (Dover Publications, 2007).

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Lao Tzu

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

"Know when to stop
And you will meet with no danger.
You can then endure."

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

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Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1342-1400)

"You're wearying me
to death, I say, with your illiterate stuff.
God bless my soul! I've had about enough.
My ears are aching from your frowsty story!
The devil take such rhymes! They're purgatory!"

• The Canterbury Tales (Host's interruption of the Tale of Sir Topaz) by Geoffrey Chaucer, translated to modern English by Nevill Coghill (Penguin Classics, 2003). 

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Thucydides

Thucydides (c. 460-400 BCE)

"It is more disgraceful, at least for those who have a name to lose, to gain one's ends by deceit which pretends to be morality than by open violence."

• From a speech attributed to Brasidas in the History of the Peloponnesian War (Book IV, section 86) by Thucydides, translated by Rex Warner (Penguin Classics, 1972).  

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Xenophon

Xenophon (c. 420-350 BCE)

"As you know, everything that belongs to the losers in a war becomes someone else's property, while if we win we can regard our enemies as our baggage-handlers."

• Anabasis Kyrou (Upcountry March of Cyrus, Book III, section 2) by Xenophon and translated by Robin Waterfield (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005). 

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Mencius

Mencius (4th century BCE)

"The people are of supreme importance; the altars to the gods of earth and grain come next; last comes the ruler."

• From The Mencius (Book VII, Part B, section 14) by Mencius, translated by D. C. Lau (Penguin Classics, 2003).

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Aristotle

Aristotle (c. 384-322 BCE)

"It is proportional requital that holds the state together; because people expect either to return evil for evil - and if they cannot, feel that they have lost their liberty - or good for good, and if this is impossible no exchange can take place; and it is exchange that holds them together."

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

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Cassius Dio

Cassius Dio (c. 163-235)

"Those who make statements which lack credibility not only fail to convince others, but create the impression that they themselves are imposters."

• From a speech attributed to Octavian in Cassius Dio's The Roman History (Book 53, chapter 3), translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert (Penguin Classics, 1987).

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The Buddha

The Buddha (6th-5th century BCE)

"Not because of matted hair,
not by means of ancestry, not by birth
does a person become superior.
But because one is honest and just
he is at ease, he is superior."

• The Dhammapada (Verses on the Way, Chapter 26), recorded in the 3rd century BCE. Translation by Glenn Wallis, 2004. 

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Livy

Livy (c. 59 BCE-17 CE)

"That [communal] sense - the only true patriotism - comes slowly and springs from the heart: it is founded upon respect for the family and love of the soil."

• The History of Rome (Book 2, section 1) by Livy, translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt. New York: Penguin Classics, 2002.

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Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin (c. 1706-1790)

"Half the truth is often a great lie."

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

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Homer

Homer (flourished c. 700 BCE)

"The glorious gifts which the gods themselves choose to lavish on a man are not to be despised; no man ever acquires them by his own efforts."

• From The Iliad (Book 3, approx. line 60) by Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu and revised by Peter Jones (Penguin Classics, 2014).

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