Quotes to inspire and reflect

Law stands mute in the midst of arms.

The goal of life is living in agreement with nature.

I call a fig a fig, a spade a spade.

When you meet your antagonist, do everything in a mild and agreeable manner. Let your courage be as keen, but at the same time as polished, as your sword.

Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.

The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities...It is best to win without fighting.

A military operation involves deception. Even though you are competent, appear to be incompetent. Though effective, appear to be ineffective.

Men must be decided on what they will not do, and then they are able to act with vigor in what they ought to do.

Sincerity is the way of Heaven.

Never has a man who has bent himself been able to make others straight.

Every advantage in the past is judged in the light of the final issue.

Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.

It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.

A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.

Evil draws men together.

Law is order, and good law is good order.

A state is not a mere society, having a common place, established for the prevention of mutual crime and for the sake of exchange...Political society exists for the sake of noble actions, and not of mere companionship.

The basis of a democratic state is liberty.

Again, men in general desire the good, and not merely what their fathers had.

They should rule who are able to rule best.

It is the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.

With regard to excellence, it is not enough to know, but we must try to have and use it.

To be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious of our own existence.

To enjoy the things, we ought and to hate the things we ought to have the greatest bearing on excellence of character.

It is possible to fail in many ways...while to succeed is possible only in one way.

We must as second best...take the least of the evils.

Time crumbles things; everything grows old under the power of Time and is forgotten through the lapse of Time.

Liars when they speak the truth are not believed.

[When asked what was the proper time for supper] If you are a rich man, whenever you please; and if you are a poor man, whenever you can.

You cannot conceive the many without the one.

I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning.

The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways - I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows.

We secure our friends not by accepting favors but by doing them.

Word is a shadow of a deed.

Having the fewest wants, I am nearest to the gods.

Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.

This is the bitterest pain among men, to have much knowledge but no power.

Not snow, no, nor rain, nor heat, nor night keeps them from accomplishing their appointed courses with all speed.

Haste in every business brings failures.

Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

Waste not fresh tears over old griefs.

Every man is like the company he is wont to keep.

The company of just and righteous men is better than wealth and a rich estate.

Slow but sure moves the might of the gods.

The day is for honest men, the night for thieves.

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.

Leave no stone unturned.

Truly, to tell lies is not honorable; but when the truth entails tremendous ruin, To speak dishonorably is pardonable.