#empire

To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a wilderness, they call it peace. ↗

— Tacitus

#empire #make #peace #plunder #slaughter

Skepticism has never founded empires, established principals, or changed the world's heart. The great doers in history have always been people of faith. ↗

— Edwin Hubbel Chapin

#been #changed #doers #empires #established

The splendid empire of Charles the Fifth was erected upon the grave of liberty. ↗

— John Lothrop Motley

#empire #erected #fifth #grave #liberty

How is the Empire? ↗

— King George V

#how

Perhaps the most dangerous by-product of the Age of Intellect is the unconscious growth of the idea that the human brain can solve the problems of the world. Even on the low level of practical affairs this is patently untrue. Any small human activity, the local bowls club or the ladies’ luncheon club, requires for its survival a measure of self-sacrifice and service on the part of the members. In a wider national sphere, the survival of the nation depends basically on the loyalty and self‑sacrifice of the citizens. The impression that the situation can be saved by mental cleverness, without unselfishness or human self-dedication, can only lead to collapse. ↗

— John Bagot Glubb

#history #intellectualism #sacrifice #service #age

I first became aware of death when my father held me up to see the view from the top of the Empire State Building. I thought that if he moved me just one foot over, I would die. But I trusted him to hold me tight. I wouldn’t fall over, and he would place me down safely. ↗

— Chrissi Sepe

#empire-state-building #death

Mohammad never assigned himself a status more than a common man and a messenger of God. People had faith in him when he was surrounded by poverty and adversity and trusted him while he was the ruler of a great Empire. He was a man of spotless character who always had confidence in himself and in God's help. No aspect of his life remained hidden nor was his death a mysterious event. ↗

— M.H. Hyndman

#atheist #christian #confidence #death #empire

Great empires are not maintained by timidity. ↗

— Tacitus

#power #roman-empire #rome #timidity #roman

There will come a time of fire and night, when enemies rise and empires fall, when the stars themselves begin to die. ↗

— Kevin J. Anderson

#kevin-j-anderson #saga-of-seven-suns #science-fiction #science

You're not like other Wasps." "Aren't I?" Aagen smiled, but it was a painful smile. "No doubt you've killed my kinsmen by the score." "A few," Salma allowed. "Well, next time you shed my kinden's blood, think on this: we are but men, no less nor more than other men, and we strive and feel joy and fail as men have always done. We live in the darkness that is the birthright of us all, that of hurt and ignorance, only sometimes... sometimes there comes the sun." He let the bowl fall from his fingers to the floor, watching it spin and settle, unbroken. ↗

— Adrian Tchaikovsky

#aagen-s-joy #birthright #darkness #grief-in-chains #here-comes-the-sun