Sublime

The feat that inspires witnesses to honor it is almost invariably one of selflessness.

blunder ought never be perpetrated to avoid war, because it is not to be avoided, but is only deferred to your disadvantage.

Any history of war which treats only of its strategic and political course is merely a picture of the surface. The personal currents run deeper and may have a deeper influence on the outcome.

There comes a time, H. L. Mencken said, when every normal man is tempted “to spit on his hands, haul up the black flag and begin slitting throats.”

Men of Athens, I honour and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy, exhorting any one whom I meet and saying to him after my manner: You, my friend,—a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens,—are you not ashamed of heaping up

Unfortunately, in a crisis situation, as the Greek poet Archilochus pointed out so long ago:

The most important thing a man tells you is what he’s not telling you.