If an important decision is to be made, they [the Persians] discuss the question when they are drunk, and the following day the master of the house where the discussion was held submits their decision for reconsideration when they are sober. If they still approve it, it is adopted; if not, it is abandoned. Conversely, any decision they make when they are sober, is reconsidered afterwards when they are drunk.

Dreams in general take their rise from those incidents which have most occupied the thoughts during the day.

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

Not snow, no, nor rain, nor heat, nor night keeps them from accomplishing their appointed courses with all speed.

Mens fortunes are on a wheel, which in its turning suffers not the same man to prosper for ever.

A multitude of rulers is not a good thing. Let there be one ruler, one king.

The secret of success is that it is not the absence of failure, but the absence of envy.