David McCormick

“It is right to endure with resignation what the gods send, and to face one’s enemies with courage. This was the old Athenian way. Do not let any act of yours prevent it from still being so. Remember, too, that the reason why Athens has the greatest name in all the world is because she has never surrendered to adversity, but has spent more life and labour in warfare than any other state. Thus the city has won the greatest power that has ever existed in history, a power that will be remembered forever by posterity, even if now (since all things are born to decay) there should come a time when we were forced to yield. —Pericles to the Athenians”
― John R. Hale, Lords of the Sea: How Athenian Trireme Battles Changed History

“The power of fate is a wonder; dark, terrible wonder. Neither wealth nor armies, towered walls nor ships, Black hulls lashed by the salt, can save us from that force. —Sophocles”
― John R. Hale, Lords of the Sea: How Athenian Trireme Battles Changed History