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Lucius Cornelius Sulla

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thehistorianshut
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Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138-78 BCE)

 

“Remember—this young man who you have been so desperate to save will one day destroy the aristocracy you have worked with me to preserve. For in this Caesar I see many a Marius.”
  • From the “I see many a Marius” speech in Suetonius’ Caesar 1 and Plutarch’s Caesar. Sulla (one of Rome’s first dictators) supposedly stated this passage after he was convinced by multiple people to remove a young Caesar from his kill list, and let him return to Rome.  Marius (Caesar’s uncle), mentioned in the quote, took power in Rome alongside another man named Cinna while Sulla was away from Italy in a military campaign against the Kingdom of Pontus.

 

Confucius

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thehistorianshut
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Confucius (c. 551-479 BCE)

“As for Goodness – you yourself desire rank and standing; then help others to get rank and standing. You want to turn your own merits to account; then help others to turn theirs to account…”

  • The Analects of Confucius (Book VI, section 28) translated by Arthur Waley (Vintage Books, 1989).

 

Benjamin Franklin

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thehistorianshut
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Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

“We are taxed twice as much by our Idleness, three times as much by our Pride, and four times as much by our Folly…”

  • From Benjamin Franklin’s The Autobiography and Other Writings, edited by Kenneth Silverman (Penguin Classics, 1986).

 

Lao Tzu

By
thehistorianshut
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Lao Tzu (founding father of Daoism/Taoism, c. 6th and 5th Century BCE)

“The most submissive thing in the world can ride roughshod over the hardest in the world.”

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

 

Al-Ghazālī

By
thehistorianshut
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Al-Ghazālī (c. 1058-1111)

“The rational faculty is a sample of the light of God.”

  • From The Niche of Lights (the First Chapter) by Al Ghazālī, translated by David Buchman. Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1998.

 

Adam of Bremen

By
thehistorianshut
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Adam of Bremen (11th Century Religious Scholar)

“Poverty has forced them thus to go all over the world and from piratical raids they bring home in great abundance the riches of the lands. In this way they bear up under the unfruitfulness of their own country.”

  • Commentary on Viking activity from Adam of Bremen’s History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen (4.30), translated in The Viking Age: A Reader, edited by Angus A. Somerville and R. Andrew McDonald. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010.

 

Anna Komnene

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thehistorianshut
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Anna Komnene (1083-1153)

“Often one has to bestow on adversaries the highest commendation, where their deeds merit it; often, too, one’s nearest relatives have to be censured, as and when their behavior deserves it. The historian, therefore, must shirk neither from remonstrating with their friends, nor from praising their enemies.”

  • This passage is from Anna Komnene’s The Alexiad (translated by E.R.A. Sewter, Penguin Classics, 2009). The Alexiad was a history written by Anna Komnene about her father, Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, of the Byzantine Empire.

Theodore Roosevelt

By
thehistorianshut
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Theodore Roosevelt (26th President of the USA, c. 1858-1919)

“I thoroughly believe in the Republican Party when it acts up to its principles, but if I can prevent it, I shall never let party zeal obscure my sense of right and decency.”

    • From a letter written by Theodore Roosevelt cited in Ken Burns’ The Roosevelts: An Intimate History.

 

Plato

By
thehistorianshut
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Plato (c. 427-347 BCE)

“If you really want to know what morality is, then don’t just ask questions and look for applause by refuting any and every answer you get, because you’ve realized that it’s easier to ask questions than it is to answer them.”

  • From Republic by Plato, translated by Robin Waterfield. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 1994, 2008.

 

Friedrich Nietzsche

By
thehistorianshut
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Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

“The darkening of the sky above mankind has deepened in step with the increase in man’s feeling of shame at man.”

  • From Friedrich Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals (second essay, section 7), translated by Walter Kaufmann in Basic Writings of Nietzsche (Modern Library, 1995, 2000).

 

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