Historical Quotes

[Olme]

Some quotes from history to ponder:

 "A dead enemy always smells good." -Xenophon-

"Brave men are a city's strongest tower of defense." -Alcaeus-

"A disorderly mob is no more an army than a heap of building materials is a house." -Socrates-

"Even the bravest are frightened by sudden terrors." -Tacitus-

"He is best secure from dangers who is on his guard even when he seems safe." -Publilius Syrus-

"In war we must be speedy." -Silius Italicus-

"Men grow tired of sleep, love, singing and dancing sooner than war." -Homer-

"War spares not the brave but the cowardly." -Anacreon-

"The Spartans do not ask how many but where they are." -Agis II of Sparta-

"Valour is the contempt of death and pain." -Tacitus-

"Come home with this shield or upon it."  -Spartan saying-

"In peace, sons bury their fathers; in war, fathers bury their sons." -Herodotus-

"He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot will be victorious." -Sun Tzu-

"I am more afraid of our own mistakes than of our enemies' designs." -Pericles-

"Only the brave enjoy noble and glorious deaths." -Dionysius-

"Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war." - Shakespeare: Julius Caesar-

[MasnDixn]

I love this list of quotes.  A very nice collection of the roman/byzantine mindset, I must say.

[lunchboxkilla]

"War is not about dying for your country but to make the other (Removed till further notice) Die for his" Patton

"Give all me the money spent in war and I shall feed, cloth, and put every man woman and child into a home"-unknown

[LoganGrimnar]

"its not the the reasion why, but to do and die"

[Diamondedge]

"If Hitler invaded Hell, I would at least give the Devil a positive remark in the House of Commons"

-Sir Winston Churchill

[HozenBigger]

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" -Sir Winston Churchill-

"quantity has a quality of its own" -Stalin-

"I do not know what World War 3 will be fought with, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones"
-Albert Einstien-

[michaelbohun]

And very appropriate to our own Layonara....

"The road to success is not to be run upon by seven-leagued boots. Step by step, little by little, bit by bit—that is the way to wealth, that is the way to wisdom, that is the way to glory."

Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton

[lunchboxkilla]

"one death is a tragity... one millon is a stastistic" Stalin

[aragwen]

"The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time." --Abraham Lincoln
  "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning." --Albert Einstein

[Germaine Lorn]

Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god.

Jean Rostand (1894 - 1977), Thoughts of a Biologist (1939)

Germaine Lorn

[Silyn Cadreus]

"He who rejects change is the architect of decay.
The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetary."
(Harold Wilson)

[lonnarin]

"I was born to murder the world!" Nix from Lord of Illusions

[Kapitän Awesome]

My favorite: "Yargh!" --Henry Morgan, King of Pirates

[Doc-Holiday]

"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask... what you can do for your country" - JFK

"One small step for man... One giant leap for mankind." - Niel Armstrong

"A lie can travel half-way 'round the world, while truth is still putting it's shoes one" - Mark Twain

"Always do right, it will gratify some people and astonish the rest." -Mark Twain

"Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you will have ceased to live." -Mark Twain

(I like Twain)

"Fiction is obligated to stick to possibilities, the truth isn't." -Mark Twain

(this one is more or less for my good friend Synpox)

"I don't give a damn for a man who can only spell a word one way." -Mark Twain

"Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of of holding passion and predjudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society." - Benjamin Franklin

"Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker upon this planet." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months." - Oscar Wilde

"One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards." -Oscar Wilde

"There are only two kinds of people who are truly fascinating: people who know absolutly everything, and people who know absolutly nothing." - Oscar Wilde

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." - Sir Winston Churchhill

"I like pigs, dogs look up to us, cast look down on us, but pigs treat us as equals." - Sir Winston Churchill

"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

[Yllyrryon]

Lol!  Quotes - Oh no!

Well this one is among my favorites (perhaps I'll include some other shorter ones later ;-) ):

"The purpose of all speech is to clothe thought and thus make our thoughts available for others. When we speak we evoke a thought and make it present, and we bring that which is concealed within us into audible expression. Speech reveals, and right speech can create a form of beneficent purpose, just as wrong speech can produce a form which has a malignant objective. Without realizing this, however, ceaselessly and irresponsibly, day after day, we speak; we use words; we multiply sounds; and surround ourselves with form worlds of our own creation. Is it not essential, therefore, that before we speak we should think, thus remembering the injunction, "You must attain to knowledge, ere you can attain to speech"? Having thought, let us then choose the right words to express the right thought, attempting to give correct pronunciation, proper values, and true tonal quality to every word we utter.

Then will our spoken word create a thought form which will embody the idea we have in our minds. Then too will our words carry no discord, but will add their quota to that great harmonizing chord or unifying word which it is the function of mankind ultimately to utter. Wrong speech separates, and it is interesting to bear in mind that the word, the symbol of unity, is divine, whereas speech in its many diversifications is human."

Djwhal Khul, Tibetan Monk - translated by Alice Bailey
A Treatise on White Magic, p.143

[Yllyrryon]

And some shorter quotes I have accumulated, mainly from studies in martial arts and the philosophy of the East:

The Master said, “I will not be concerned at men’s not knowing me, I will be concerned at my own lack of ability.”  Confucius, from The Analects

The mind should be nowhere in particular.   Takuan

You and your opponent are one.  There is a coexisting relationship between you.  You coexist with your opponent and become his complement, absorbing his attack and using his force to overcome him.  Bruce Lee

Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free: Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing.  This is the ultimate.  Chuang-Tzu

The angry man will defeat himself in battle as well as in life.  Samurai Maxim

To know and act are one and the same.  Samurai Maxim

Fast as the wind, quiet as the forest, aggressive as fire, and immovable as a mountain.  Samurai battle banner.

I can defeat you physically with or without a reason.  But I can defeat your mind only with a reason.  Jim Lau

In order to achieve victory you must place yourself in your opponent’s skin.
If you don’t understand yourself, you will lose one hundred percent of the time.
If you understand yourself, you will win fifty percent of the time.  
If you understand yourself and your opponent, you will win one hundred percent of the time.  Tsutomu Oshima

The mind of a perfect man is like a mirror.  It grasps nothing.  It expects nothing.  It reflects but does not hold.  Therefore, the perfect man can act without effort.  Chuang-Tzu

You must be deadly serious in training.  When I say that, I do not mean that you should be reasonably diligent or moderately in earnest.  I mean that your opponent must always be present in your mind, whether you sit or stand or walk or raise your arms.  Ginchin Funakoshi’s First Rule for the Study of Karate-Do

What enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is foreknowledge.  Sun Tzu, The Art of War (Clavell, 1983, p. 77).

See first with your mind, then with your eyes, and finally with your body.  Master Swordsman Yagyu Munenori (1571-1646).

[Force_of_Will_]

Ladies ladies ladies - Jay
Snoochie Boochies - Jay
Charisma,It's a special quality of leadership that inspires allegiance and devotion. -Pauly Shore

[Tordec]

"An army of deer led by a lion can defeat an army of lions led by a deer" - Unknown

"The most common hunters of the undead are religious parishioners and priests. Their beliefs encourage fanaticism, suicide assaults, and the eradication of free will. These hopeless persecutors typically follow the beliefs of a god of light, seeking to do the wishes of 'good', while actually plunging the world into darkness. If they should eradicate all of the enemies of their deity, then what purpose would their deity have to continue existing? Their logic is hopelessly flawed, but their faith is fanatic - they cannot be reasoned with and will not attempt negotiation before they attack, swinging their holy symbols in our faces." - A lich from the Book of Undead

"I am familiar with your god, he was once mortal as well. Are our ways any different from his ascension? Has he not given up his mortal existence, his 'spirit' if you will, for an existence that mortals can no longer fully comprehend? We, too, have left mortality behind to pursue higher goals. Our very existence encourages cultures to turn away from evil and seek light. Will they come to your churches, I wonder, when there are no more undead left to hide from?" - Same Lich, talking about St.Cuthbert I think

"One touch, one bite - one moment of pain and an eternity of pleasure." - Katriona Solemntue, Vampire (Book of Undead)

[Kapitän Awesome]

Another good one:

"I refuse to join any club that will have me as a member"--Groucho Marx

[Ioskeha]

A couple that I like.

We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education.
--Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Every thought in consciousness has been born into form, a temporary form and then it dies and goes onto another form. You could say the whole world is consciousness having taken birth as form, manifesting as form temporarily, and then dying which means dissolving as form. What always remains is the essence of all that exists - consciousness itself.
--Eckhart Tolle

We are all born mad. Some remain so.
--Samuel Beckett

In its famous paradox, the equation of money and excrement, psychoanalysis becomes the first science to state what common sense and the poets have long known - that the essence of money is in its absolute worthlessness.
--Norman O. Brown

Le sens commun n'est pas si commun (Common sense is not so common)
--Voltaire [Francois-Marie Arouet]