Oh! Most miserable wretch that I am! Why have I not learnt how to swim?
I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well. {His teacher was the legendary philosopher Aristotle}
Whatever possession we gain by our sword cannot be sure or lasting, but the love gained by kindness and moderation is certain and durable.
How happy had it been for me had I been slain in the battle. It had been far more noble to have died the victim of the enemy than fall a sacrifice to the rage of my friends.
Heaven cannot brook two suns, nor earth two masters.
I am dying from the treatment of too many physicians.
You shall, I question not, find a way to the top if you diligently seek for it; for nature hath placed nothing so high that it is out of the reach of industry and valor.
True love never has a happy ending, because there is no ending to true love.
Shall I, that have destroyed my Preservers, return home?
How great are the dangers I face to win a good name in Athens.
In the end, when it's over, all that matters is what you've done.
Bury my body and don't build any monument. Keep my hands out so the people know the one who won the world had nothing in hand when he died.
I do not pilfer victory.
How should a man be capable of grooming his own horse, or of furbishing his own spear and helmet, if he allows himself to become unaccustomed to tending even his own person, which is his most treasured belonging?
For my own part, I would rather excel in knowledge of the highest secrets of philosophy than in arms.
I had rather excel others in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and dominion.
May God keep you away from the venom of the cobra, the teeth of the tiger, and the revenge of the Afghans.
Who does not desire such a victory by which we shall join places in our Kingdom, so far divided by nature, and for which we shall set up trophies in another conquered world?
If we turn our backs of the Scythians who have provoked us, how shamefully shall we march against the revolted Bactrians; but if we pass Tanais and make the Scythians feel, by dear experience, that we are invincible, not in Asia only, it is not to be doubted but that Europe itself, as well as Asia, will come within the bounds of our conquests.
I would rather live a short life of glory than a long one of obscurity.
Without Knowledge, Skill cannot be focused. Without Skill, Strength cannot be brought to bear and without Strength, Knowledge may not be applied.
Soldiers, I had lately like to have been taken from you by the attempt of a few desperate men, but by the grace and providence of the gods, I am still preserved.
His father is governor of Media, and though he has the greatest command given him of all the rest of my generals, he still covetously desires more, and my being without issue spurs him on to this wicked design. But Philotas takes wrong measures.
So far as I am concerned, I could not be accused of having set eyes, or having wished to set eyes, upon Darius' wife: on the contrary, I have refused even to listen to those who spoke to me of her beauty.
I wish that the Indians believed me a god, for upon the report of an enemy's valor oftentimes depends the success of a battle, and false reports have many times done as great things as true courage and resolution.
Through every generation of the human race there has been a constant war, a war with fear. Those who have the courage to conquer it are made free and those who are conquered by it are made to suffer until they have the courage to defeat it, or death takes them.
My father will anticipate everything. He will leave you and me no chance to do a great and brilliant deed.
With the right attitude, self imposed limitations vanish
Let us conduct ourselves so that all men wish to be our friends and all fear to be our enemies.
Toil and risk are the price of glory, but it is a lovely thing to live with courage and die leaving an everlasting fame.
