Shocking Sayings

You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Sire, there is no royal road to geometry.

There are men and gods, and beings like Pythagoras.

Those by nature overweight, die earlier than the slim.

Alexander ignored his advisers by his regard for all people with law and government.

Those who are enslaved to their sects are not merely devoid of all sound knowledge, but they will not even stop to learn!

Heaven cannot brook two suns, nor earth two masters.

καὶ σύ, τέκνον (kai sy, teknon) - 'You too, child?'

Never was there a man more fitted by nature for the command of an army, and to inspire confidence in his soldiers, than Hannibal.

Enemies are not to be despised, however humble; and friends are not to be trusted, however great.

I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue come money and every other good of man, public as well as private.

The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself.

From the hour of their birth, some are marked out for subjection, others for rule.

When the government is muddle-headed, the people are simple and honest. When the government is clear-cut, the people are discontented.

Do not kill. Do not lie. Do not steal. Do not be unchaste. Do not possess anything.

I had neither father nor mother.

I will drink poison to avoid captivity.

The scholars of the past speak only of what was; they do not understand what is to be. Their books are a hindrance, not a help.

I will not rule over a people who are forced to serve me. Let them choose to be my subjects, and I will be their king.

For if we are lovers of the beautiful, yet with economy, and lovers of wisdom, yet without softness, then we are unique.