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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