Xenophon (444 BCE-357 BCE)

Wherever magistrates were appointed from among those who complied with the injunctions of the laws, Socrates considered the government to be an aristocracy.

Books from Alibris: Xenophon

Thucydides (c 460 BCE-c 400 BCE)

Wars spring from unseen and generally insignificant causes, the first outbreak being often but an explosion of anger.

Books from Alibris: Thucydides

Plutarch (45-120 CE)

To be ignorant of the lives of the most celebrated men of antiquity is to continue in a state of childhood all our days.

Books from Alibris: Plutarch

Plato (428 BCE-347 BCE)

But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed. - from the Republic

Books from Alibris: Plato

al-Mawardi (c 974-1058)

The mushrikun [infidels] of Dar al-Harb (the arena of battle) are of two types: First, those whom the call of Islam has reached, but they have refused it and have taken up arms. The amir of the army has the option of fighting them…in accordance with what he judges to be in the best interest of the Muslims and most harmful to the mushrikun… Second, those whom the invitation to Islam has not reached, although such persons are few nowadays since Allah has made manifest the call of his Messenger…[I]t is forbidden to…begin an attack before explaining the invitation to Islam to them, informing them of the miracles of the Prophet and making plain the proofs so as to encourage acceptance on their part; if they still refuse to accept after this, war is waged against them and they are treated as those whom the call has reached... - Shafi'i jurist , The Laws of Islamic Governance [al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyyah, (London, United Kingdom.: Ta-Ha, 1996, p. 60)

Books from Alibris: Ali ibn Muhammad al-Mawardi

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)

It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.

Books from Alibris: Machiavelli

Livy (Titus Livius) (59 BCE-17 CE)

Envy, like fire, soars upward. [Lat., Invidiam, tamquam ignem, summa petere.] - from Annales (VIII, 31)

Books from Alibris: Livy

Stephen Leacock (1869-1944)

Advertising: the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.

Books from Alibris: Stephen Leacock

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1395)

He who finds a new path is a pathfinder, even if the trail has to be found again by others; and he who walks far ahead of his contemporaries is a leader, even though centuries pass before he is recognized as such.

Books from Alibris: Ibn Khaldun

Homer (c 900 BCE)

Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.

Books from Alibris: Homer

Hesiod (c 850 BCE)

The man who does evil to another does evil to himself, and the evil counsel is most evil for him who counsels it.

Books from Alibris: Hesiod

Georg Wilhelm Hegel (1770-1831)

What experience and history teach is this-- that people and governments never have learned anything from history.

Books from Alibris: Hegel

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BCE-43 BCE)

Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature.

Books from Alibris: Cicero

Gaius Julius Caesar (c 100 BCE-44 BCE)

It is the right of war for conquerors to treat those whom they have conquered according to their pleasure.

Books from Alibris: Julius Caesar

Avicenna (Ibn Sina) (980-1037)

Now it is established in the sciences that no knowledge is acquired save through the study of its causes and beginnings, if it has had causes and beginnings; nor completed except by knowledge of its accidents and accompanying essentials.

Books from Alibris: Avicenna

Saint Augustine (354-430)

He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.

Books from Alibris: Saint Augustine

Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

Books from Alibris: Aristotle