I am Cyrus, king of the world.

A man's enjoyment of all good things is in exact proportion to the pains he has undergone to gain them.

We love ourselves notwithstanding our faults, and we ought to love our friends in like manner.

Diversity in counsel, unity in command.

Even if the skies were shorter than my knees, I would not kneel.

May all the gods whom I settled in their sacred centers ask daily of Bêl and Nâbu that my days be long and may they intercede for my welfare. ... The people of Babylon blessed my kingship, and I settled all the lands in peaceful abodes.

Success always calls for greater generosity - though most people, lost in the darkness of their own egos, treat it as an occasion for greater greed. Collecting boot is not an end itself, but only a means for building an empire. Riches would be of little use to us now - except as a means of winning new friends.