Epaminondas Quotes

I do not admire the excess of a virtue like courage unless I see at the same time an excess of the opposite virtue, as in Epaminondas, who possessed extreme courage and extreme kindness. Otherwise it is not rising to the heights but falling down. We show greatness, not by being at one extreme, but by touching both at once and occupying all the space in between.

It is not by blood, anyhow, that man's true continuity is established: Alexander's direct heir is Caesar, and not the frail infant born of a Persian princess in an Asiatic citadel; Epaminondas, dying without issue, was right to boast that he had Victories for daughters.

Epaminondas himself fell in the moment of victory, and in his death contributed not the least of his lessons to subsequent generations-by an exceptionally dramatic and convincing proof that an army and a state succumb quickest to paralysis of the brain.

C'est bien difficile de travailler quand on n'en a pas l'habitude.

I do not admire the excess of a virtue as of valour, except I see at the same time the excess of the opposite virtue, as in Epaminondas, who had the greatest valour and the greatest kindness. For otherwise it is not to rise, it is to fall. We do not display greatness by going to one extreme, but in touching both at once, and filling all the intervening space.

Whether this has ever happened I know not, nor whether it ever can happen. For we see, as I have said a little way back, that a city which owing to its pervading corruption has once begun to decline, if it is to recover at all, must be saved not by the excellence of the people collectively, but of some one man then living among them, on whose death it at once relapses into its former plight; as happened with Thebes, in which the virtue of Epaminondas made it possible while he lived to preserve the form of a free Government, but which fell again on his death into its old disorders; the reason being that hardly any ruler lives so long as to have time to accustom to right methods a city which has long been accustomed to wrong.

Thirst, hunger, heat, cold, discomfort, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, fear, and often pain and suffering as well all remain exactly what they have been since time immemorial. Any commander worth his salt will make sure his troops will get habituated to them, as far as possible, before he leads them on campaign. However, to speak with Epaminondas, the place to achieve this is the field and not the gym or the playing court. The members of football teams do not enter the field hungry; should they suffer a serious injury, they expect to be evacuated and taken care of immediately.

Se for para ser feliz só até amanhã, não quero. Não precisa nem vir. Prefiro começar a ser triste desde já.

...ele veio contanto que que caíra no pátio da escola um pedaço de lua, todo cheio de buraquinhos, feito queijo, e ele provou e tinha gosto de queijo. (...) Quando o menino voltou falando que todas as borboletas da Terra passaram pela chácara de siá Elpídia e queriam formar um tapete voador para transportá-lo ao sétimo céu, a mãe decidiu levá-lo ao médico. Após o exame, o dr. Epaminondas abanou a cabeça: - Não há nada a fazer, dona Coló. Este menino é mesmo um caso de poesia.

enough for the Spartans to mortally wound Epaminondas with a spearhead.

the life bled out of Epaminondas where he lay,

¿Crees que benefician más a la humanidad los que traen al mundo a dos o tres críos llorones que quienes entregan sus fuerzas al servicio de sus congéneres? Recuerda a Homero Príamo, que engendró cincuenta despojos. ¿Contribuyeron más a la gloria de los tebanos los ciudadanos que tuvieron hijos que Epaminondas, que murió sin descendencia? Algunos cargos, sancionados por tratados, impiden tener hijos, y no nos parece que esos hombres hayan perdido demasiado.