Steve Groves

“The steady economic and social progress made throughout Greece from the seventh to the late fifth century B.C attests to the singular genius of Hoplite warfare: it was a system that prevented the constant and inevitable internecine struggles from having any harmful lasting influence on the culture of the Greek city-state.”
― Victor Davis Hanson, The Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece by Victor Davis Hanson

“I, Suethes, on the other hand, consider that there are no nobler and more brilliant possessions that a man, and particularly a man who holds power, can have than honour and fair dealing and generosity. A man who has these is rich in the possession of many friends and rich in the fact that many others want to become friends of his.”
― Xenophon, The Anabasis of Xenophon ..

“What is it they seek from the king?’ Bazo asked the question for all those who listened, and Kamuza shrugged.

‘This one asks for the right to hunt elephant and take the teeth, this one asks for the young girls to be sent to his wagon, another wants to tell the nation of a strange white god that has three heads, another wishes to dig a hole and look for the yellow iron, yet another wishes to buy cattle. One says he wants only this, and another only that, but they want it all. These people are consumed by a hunger that can never be appeased, they burn with a thirst that can never be assuaged. They want everything they see, and even that is never enough for them. They take the very earth, but that is not enough, so they tear it open like a man rearing a child from the mother’s womb…Everything they see they take; and they see everything, for they are always moving and searching and looking.”
― Wilbur Smith, [Men of Men] [by: Wilbur Smith]

“The first demand any work of art makes upon us is surrender. Look. Listen. Receive. Get yourself out of the way.”
― C.S Lewis