Occupations

"The knight's bones are dust, And his good sword rust; His soul is with the saints, I trust."

"Nursed by stern men with empires in their brains."

"[R]esearch has provided evidence that combat exposure is associated with aggression and violent behavior, with various studies finding that violent combat experience predicts risk-taking behaviors, criminal behavior, and physical aggression with a significant other (MacManus et al., 2015)."

"Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation?—Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground?—Why by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humour or caprice?"

"'Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances, with any portion of the foreign world—so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it."

"An Austrian army awfully arrayed. Siege of Belgrade."

"See! There is Jackson standing like a stone wall."

"There is a remedy against the domination imposed, not by generals, statesmen, and men of action, whose power dissolves when they retire, but by the great sort-crossers, whose power increases when they die- the remedy of becoming aware of metaphor..."

"Statesmen have to bend to the collective will of their peoples or be broken."

"I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in."

"One of the best methods of rendering study agreeable is to live with able men, and to suffer all those pangs of inferiority which the want of knowledge always inflicts."

"How sleep the brave, who sink to rest, By all their country's wishes blest! * * * * * By fairy hands their knell is rung, By forms unseen their dirge is sung."

"If you wish to preserve your secret wrap it up in frankness."

"Studious of ease, and fond of humble things."

"Most of the people who get sent to die in wars are young men who've got a lot of energy and would probably rather, in a better world, be putting that energy into copulation rather than going over there and blowing some other young man's guts out."

"Legatus est vir bonus peregre missus ad mentiendem rei publicæ causæ."

"Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies, is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience. For natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies; simple men admire them; and wise men use them. For they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without [outside of] them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed digested. That is, some books are to be read only parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books: else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And, therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not."

"Soldiers, you brave guys, who are your fathers? Our fathers are Russian commanders, that's what our fathers are. Soldiers, you brave guys, who are your mothers? Our mothers are white tents, that's what our mothers are. Soldiers, you brave guys, who are your sisters? Our sisters are our sharp sabres and pikes, that's what our sisters are. Soldiers, you brave guys, who are your wives? Our wives are our loaded guns, that's what our wives are. Soldiers, you brave guys, who are your children? Our children are our well-aimed bullets, that's what our children are. Soldiers, you brave guys, who are your aunts? Our aunts are our ripped soles, that's what our aunts are. Soldiers, you brave guys, who are your grandfathers? Our grandfathers are glorious victories, that's what our grandfathers are. Soldiers, you brave guys, what is your glory? Our glory is Russian state, that's what our glory is."

"Each year his mighty armies marched forth in gallant show, Their enemies were targets, their bullets they were tow."

"And lives to clutch the golden keys, To mould a mighty state's decrees, And shape the whisper of the throne."

"Beholding the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies."

"Step by step. Heart to heart. Left, right, left. We all fall down, like toy soldiers. Bit by bit torn apart, we never win, but the battle wages on for toy soldiers."

"A person who is transformed by the instructions of a teacher, devotes himself to study, and abides by ritual and rightness may become a noble person, while one who follows his nature and emotions, is content to give free play to his passions, and abandons ritual and rightness is a lesser person."

"O Granta! sweet Granta! where studious of ease, I slumbered seven years, and then lost my degrees."

"Winston Churchill famously claimed that of all human qualities, courage was the most esteemed, because it guaranteed all others. He was right. Courage—moral courage—is the companion of great leadership. No politician could ever be viewed as exceptional unless he or she had it in spades. And historically there would have been no social progress if not for the presence of specific humans dissenting and breaking from herd-inspired suspicion and fear... At best, courage is self-sacrificing, non-violent, modest and based on universal principles — and immensely powerful.... Look at today’s politicians... keen to be viewed as the virile leaders of their respective countries; eager to inflate their image by harming migrants and refugees, the most vulnerable in society. If there is courage in that, I fail to see it. Authoritarian leaders, or elected leaders inclined toward it, are bullies, deceivers, selfish cowards. If they are growing in number it is because (with exceptions) many other politicians are mediocre... focused on their own image... too afraid to stand up... What if 100m or more people marched around the world in protest at what it is we now see: the ineptitude, selfishness, the cruelties and the threats to our collective well-being? ...it might just deliver a sort of shock therapy to those dangerous or useless politicians who now threaten humanity."

"Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations—entangling alliances with none."

"Learning proceeds until death and only then does it stop. ... Its purpose cannot be given up for even a moment. To pursue it is to be human, to give it up to be a beast."

"Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; morals, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend."

"There’s an old Chinese saying that a soldier who doesn't want to be a general is not a good soldier. Any time, just give me the chance. I’m prepared all the time."

"Studiis florentem ignobilis oti."

"School children and students who love God should never say: “For my part I like mathematics”; “I like French”; “I like Greek.” They should learn to like all these subjects, because all of them develop that faculty of attention which, directed towards God, is the very substance of prayer."

"O Dormer, how can I behold thy fate, And not the wonders of thy youth relate; How can I see the gay, the brave, the young, Fall in the cloud of war, and lie unsung! In joys of conquest he resigns his breath, And, filled with England's glory, smiles in death."

"Hæc studia adolescentiam alunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant, adversis solatium et perfugium præbent, delectant domi, non impediunt foris, pernoctant nobiscum, peregrinantur, rusticantur."

"D'ye think that statesmen's kindnesses proceed From any principles but their own need."

"The first among the sciences is that of statesmanship. That cannot be learnt in academies. No great minister, from Suger to Richelieu, ever occupied himself with physics or mathematics. The genius of the natural sciences makes impossible that other kind of genius, which is a talent unto itself."

"If we have no aptitude or natural taste for geometry this does not mean that our faculty for attention will not be developed by wrestling with a problem or studying a theorem. On the contrary it is almost an advantage. ... Without our knowing or feeling it, this apparently barren effort has brought more light into the soul. ... Every time that a human being succeeds in making an effort of attention with the sole idea of increasing his grasp of truth, he acquires a greater aptitude for grasping it, even if his effort produces no visible fruit."

"The development of an international legal framework to control the use of mercenaries started in the 1960's. At that time, the United Nations became concerned that the use of foreign mercenary forces could prevent and hinder the right to self-determination of peoples under colonial domination. What developed at the international level was a recognition that mercenary activities were an affront to the principles of sovereign equality, political independence and territorial integrity of states."

"Study is like the heaven's glorious sun That will not be deep-searched with saucy looks; Small have continual plodders ever won, Save base authority from others' books."

"So study evermore is overshot; While it doth study to have what it would It doth forget to do the thing it should, And when it hath the thing it hunteth most, 'Tis won as towns with fire, so won, so lost."

"The truth is, gentlemen, a statesman is the creature of his age, the child of circumstances, the creation of his times. A statesman is essentially a practical character ; and when he is called upon to take office, he is not to inquire what his opinions might or might not have been upon this or that subject he is only to ascertain the needful, and the beneficial, and the most feasible manner in which affairs are to be carried on. I laugh, therefore, at the objections against a man, that, at a former period of his career, he advocated a policy different to his present one."

"I have the courage of my opinions, but I have not the temerity to give a political blank cheque to Lord Salisbury."

"What is the end of study? Let me know? Why, that to know, which else we should not know. Things hid and barr'd, you mean, from common sense? Ay, that is study's god-like recompense."

"Even if you’re planning to get me married, that will also cost money! Just help me start my studies; I won’t be a burden on you."

"I'm supposed to be a soldier who never blows his composure, even though I hold the weight of the whole world on my shoulders."

"A great statesman is he who knows when to depart from traditions, as well as when to adhere to them."

"It is clear to you, I am sure, Lucilius, that no man can live a happy life, or even a supportable life, without the study of wisdom."

"Some for hard masters, broken under arms, In battle lopt away, with half their limbs, Beg bitter bread thro' realms their valour saved."

"Verily, the soul is content when that which it desires is learned, and becomes importunate in its pursuit when it is spurned."

"As turning the logs will make a dull fire burn, so changes of studies a dull brain."

"God and a soldier all people adore In time of war, but not before; And when war is over and all things are righted, God is neglected and an old soldier slighted."