"Learn what can, and cannot, be asked from destiny."
Wars don't bring lasting peace, only lasting death.
There must be love, and understanding, to betray. Most men haven't the wit or the honor for betrayal: not to know it when they see it; not the stomach to apprehend it as they do it. Most men, blind and dumb in their self-centeredness, don't betray: they merely disappoint.
Revenge is fruitless.
Humiliation sets armies marching, empires falling, breaks hearts and minds and souls.
These warriors of the Sacred Band were inscrutable; they loved their war and death and picking through the bones of time to sort out right from wrong, good from bad, holy from profane, honor from dishonor.