Valerio Massimo Manfredi · 368 pages
Rating: (5.1K votes)
“History sometimes reproduces, at a distance of many years, the same combinations of circumstances that generate great achievements. But nothing ever repeats itself in exactly the same way.”
“There are no simple answers to complex problems.”
“Remember, my boy, I never fight for the pleasure of wielding weapons. War, for me, is simply politics by other means.”
“They passed the Gates of Thermopylae the following day and Alexander stopped to visit the tombs of the Spartan soldiers who had fallen one hundred and forty years previously during their battle with the Persian invaders. He read the simple inscription in Laconian dialect that commemorated their ultimate sacrifice and he stood in silence listening to the wind blowing in from the sea.
How ephemeral is the destiny of man!’ he exclaimed. ‘All that is left of the thunder of a momentous clash which shook the whole world and an act of heroism worthy of Homer’s verses are these few lines. All is quiet now.”
“واعتبر اليونانيون أن الدولة التي تبنى على روابط الدم بدلا من حقوق المواطنة والتي يحكمها ملك بطريقة مطلقة بحيث يكون فوق القانون هي دولة بربرية”
“قال الأسكندر:"وماذا بشأن العبيد؟هل في الإمكان وجود عالم من دون عبيد؟"
أجاب أرسطو:"كلا طالما يستحيل وجود نول ينسج القماش من تلقاء نفسه,اما إذا أصبح ذلك ممكنا فيمكن عندها ان نتصور وجود عالم من دون عبيد لكنني لا أعتق أبدا أن ذلك سيحدث في المستقبل”
“A poet, Hephaestion, sings not to narrate human events as they occur, but to make sure that we have the opportunity of living the emotions and the passions of our heroes even at a distance of centuries.”
“philip closed his eyes and stood upright and immobile in the middle of the silet room. In that moment the roar of battle, the creaking wood of the siege engines, the furious galloping of the horses all faded away; he simply stood stock still and listened to his son's breathing.”
“As soon as a young man advances toward a woman, directly he falls under the influence of this opium, and loses his head. Long ago I felt ill at ease when I saw a woman too well adorned,—whether a woman of the people with her red neckerchief and her looped skirt, or a woman of our own society in her ball-room dress. But now it simply terrifies me. I see in it a danger to men, something contrary to the laws; and I feel a desire to call a policeman, to appeal for defence from some quarter, to demand that this dangerous object be removed.”
“When did you become a woman?"-Hatori
How dare you ask that after you have seen me naked so many times..."-Yuki
GASP! No it cant be! Yuki-kun, does that mean..." fan club girls
NO! He's my doctor..."Yuki”
“Christ should leave us. He is too much with us and I don’t like his friends. We have no hope of recovering Christ until Christ leaves us. There is after all something worse than being God-forsaken. It is when God overstays his welcome and takes up with the wrong people.”
“Here is a lesson in creative writing.
First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.
And I realize some of you may be having trouble deciding whether I am kidding or not. So from now on I will tell you when I'm kidding.
For instance, join the National Guard or the Marines and teach democracy. I'm kidding.
We are about to be attacked by Al Qaeda. Wave flags if you have them. That always seems to scare them away. I'm kidding.
If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”
“One day a man has a job, and life is full of possibilities. The next day the job and the car are gone, and the man cannot look his wife in the eye.”
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