“Books will speak plain when counsellors blanch. Therefore it is good to be conversant with them; especially the books of such as themselves have been actors upon the stage.”—Sir Francis Bacon.
“At this moment, Europe, which fears neither God nor devil, grovels in terror before a little man hardly five feet in height; who, clad in a cocked hat and grey great-coat and mounted upon a white horse, plods along through mud and darkness; followed by the most enthusiastic, most devoted and most efficient band of cut-throats and robbers, the world has ever seen.”
“Many good soldiers are but poor generals.”—Hannibal.
“No soldier serving under a victorious commander, ever has enough of war.”—Caesar.
“Officers always should be chosen from the nobility and never from the lower orders of society; for the former, no matter how dissolute, always retain a sense of honor, while the latter, though guilty of atrocious actions, return to their homes without compunction and are received by their families without disapprobation.”—Frederic the Great.
At the terrible disaster of Cannae, the Patrician Consul Aemilius Paulus and 80,000 Romans died fighting sword in hand; while the Plebian Consul, Varro, fled early in the battle. Upon the return of the latter to Rome, the Senate, instead of ordering his execution, with withering sarcasm formally voted him its thanks and the thanks of the Roman people, “that he did not despair of the Republic.”