Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
Athenians were not rational at all, merely selfish and shrewd. What guided their decisions was their base emotions—hunger for power, attention, and money. And for those purposes they could be very tactical and clever, but none of their maneuvers led to anything that lasted or served the overall interests of the democracy.
Robert Greene • The Laws of Human Nature
Moreover Cyrus’s behaviour towards all who came to him from the king’s court was such that, when he sent them away again, they were better friends to himself than to the king his brother. Nor did he neglect the barbarians in his own service; but trained them, at once to be capable as warriors and devoted adherents of himself.
Xenophon • The Persian Expedition
“Nothing fancy, brothers,” the king guided the construction. “For a wall of stone will not preserve Hellas, but a wall of men.”
Steven Pressfield • Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae
Thucydides described Themistocles as being ‘at once the best judge in those sudden crises which admit of little or no deliberation, and the best prophet of the future, even to its most distant possibilities’.[16]
Henry Kissinger • Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy
Four schools of philosophy were founded about the time of Alexander. The two most famous, the Stoics and Epicureans, will be the subjects of later chapters; in the present chapter we shall be concerned with the Cynics and Sceptics. The first of these schools is derived, through its founder Diogenes, from Antisthenes, a disciple of Socrates, about t
... See moreBertrand Russell • History of Western Philosophy
because of the man who wrote its history, Thucydides the Athenian.
Thucydides • History of the Peloponnesian War
Anaxagoras comprehended the God-Intelligence which reigns over all men and all beings. In rejecting ancient religious notions, he also rejected ancient polity. As he did not believe in the gods of the prytaneum, he no longer fulfilled all the duties of a citizen; he avoided the assemblies, and would not be a magistrate. His doctrine was an attack u
... See moreNuma Denis Fustel de Coulanges • The Ancient City: A Study of the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome (Illustrated)
According to Diogenes, early Western philosophy had two separate branches.1 One branch—he calls it the Italian branch—began with Pythagoras. If we follow through the various successors of Pythagoras, we ultimately come to Epicurus, whose own school of philosophy was a major rival to the Stoic school. The other branch—Diogenes calls it the Ionian br
... See more