In peace sons bury fathers, but war violates the order of nature, and fathers bury sons.

A general curiosity about the unknown sparked by the multicultural milieu in which I spent my formative years. There was a lot of unknown back then, too. I dare say it was easier to be an explorer then.

The most hateful human misfortune is for a wise man to have no influence.

Illness strikes men when they are exposed to change.

If anyone, no matter who, were given the opportunity of choosing from amongst all the nations in the world the set of beliefs which he thought best, he would inevitably—after careful considerations of their relative merits—choose that of his own country. Everyone without exception believes his own native customs, and the religion he was brought up in, to be the best.

Let there be nothing untried; for nothing happens by itself, but men obtain all things by trying.

The Lacedaemonians fought a memorable battle; they made it quite clear that they were the experts, and that they were fighting against amateurs.