Caesar Augustus

"Vare, redde mihi legiones" or "Varus, give me back my legions!"
- after the annihilation of the XVII, XVIII and the XIX Legions and thier commander Quintus Varus at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest 9 A.D.

Gaius Julius Caesar

"Alea iacta est" or "The die is cast"
- As he lead the XIII Legion across the Rubicon, the border between Cisalpine-Gaul and Italy, thus begining a civil war.

"Veni vidi vici" or "I came, I saw, I conquered"
- After decisively defeating the king of Pontus, Pharnaces II

Wu Ch'i, General

"One who gains five victories suffers calamity;
One who gains four is exhausted;
One who gains three becomes Lord Protector;
One who gains two, a King;
One who gains one, the Emperor.
Thus he who by countless victories has gained an empire is unique, while those who have perished thereby are many."
- The Art of War (Griffith, 1963, Appendix I, Ch. 1)

The Buddha

The perfume of sandalwood,
Rosebay or Jasmine,
Cannot travel against the wind.
But the fragrance of virtue
Travels even against the wind,
As far as the ends of the world.
- Dhammapada

Veda Vyasa

There is no equality in experience betwen the Lord and the self;
for the Lord is all-knowing, all powerful, and absolute;
while the self is of little-understanding, of little power and absolutely dependent.
- Garuda Purana

Shen Xiu

The body is the Bodhi tree;
This mind is a bright mirror's stand,
Polish it unceasingly,
And do not let dust fall on it.

Confucius

To proclaim on the road what you hear on the way is virtue thrown away
- The Analects, 17:34

Taira Shigesuke

"If you do wrong, unconcerned that people will say it is wrong, or if you are cowardly without caring that people will laugh at you for your spinelessness, there is nothing anyone can teach you."
- Bushido Shoshinshu, (Chapter 1, "Right and Wrong")

Jesus Christ

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.”
- Matthew 6:24

Jean de Vienne, Admiral & Crusader

"When truth and reason cannot be heard, then must arrogance rule"
- at the sight of the over-hastily advancing French and Burgundian knights at Nicopolis (1396).

Euripides

Where two discourse, if the one’s anger rise,
The man who lets the contest fall is wise.
- Fragment 656. Protesilaus.

Mao Tse Tung

When the enemy advances, we retreat!
When the enemy halts, we harrass!
When the enemy seeks to avoid battle, we attack!
When the enemy retreats, we pursue!
- Selected Military Writings of Mao Tse-Tung, p. 72 (1966)

Takeda Shingen

"My castle is in the hearts of my people."
- On the need for organizational commitment
(Shingen was Daimyo of Kai, during the Segoku Jidai)

Sun Tzu

All warfare is based on deception.
Therefore, when capable, feign incapacity;
when active, inactivity.
When near, make it appear that you are far away;
when far away, that you are near.
Offer the enemy a bait to lure him;
feign disorder and strike him.
When he concentrates, prepare against him;
where he is strong, avoid him.
-The Art of War (Chapter 1, "Estimates"), Griffith, 1963

Swift as the wind
Silent as a forest
Fierce as fire
Immovable as a mountain
-The Art of War (Chapter 7, "Manuevering")

Bruce Lee

"Water is insubstantial. By this I mean you can not grasp hold of it. You can not punch it and hurt it. Be formless, shapeless, like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put water into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash...be water my friend."

Arnold Schwarzenegger

"It's simple, if it jiggles, it's fat."

John Stuart Mill

"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more imporant than his own personal safety,is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of men better than himself."