elena

“He loved his mother: doesn't that warm your silly, sentimental, twentieth-century heart? He loved his father. He loved his sister. He loved his niece. He loved his friends. He admired certain individuals. But his affections were always specific; they were not given away to all comers. This seems enough to me. You want him to do more? You want him to 'love humanity', to goose the human race? But that means nothing. Loving humanity means as much and as little as loving raindrops, or loving the Milky Way. You say that you love humanity? Are you sure you aren't treating yourself to easy self-congratulation, seeking approval, making certain you're on the right side?”
― Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot

“No yield to the dead! Never stab the fighter when he's down. Where's the glory, killing the dead twice over?”
― Sophocles, Antigone

“When, lithe of limb, she danced the Pyrrhic, loud clapping followed; and the Paphlagonians asked, "If these women fought by their side in battle?" to which they answered, "To be sure, it was the women who routed the great King, and drove him out of camp." So ended the night.”
― Xenophon, The Persian Expedition

“Separated from Hellas by more than a thousand miles, they had not even a guide to point the way.”
― Xenophon, Anabasis