Alea iacta est

L'etat c'est moi

Apres moi le deluge

England expects that every man will do his duty

And the translations...The first one (latin) is about something Caesar was up to (the die is thrown), but the other ones? Look like French.

Just like at the poker tables, all in English would be welcomed (or at least translations if it sounds poetic in the foreign languages.) I'm afraid I lack the cultural openness to speak a foreign language! Much apologies.

As this is a history thread; I think it necessary we give Author, and date if possible. Context i think is very important; as these are historical quotes which inspire us, to say such profound things would require situations of great duress, or goodness! This though is obviously just an opinion, and I have definitely failed to do it in the past

1. Usually, "The die is cast" or "The die has been cast" - attributed to Caesar upon crossing the Rubicon with his legion. Start of the Roman civil war and the beginning of the end of the Roman Republic. Jan 10th 49 BC.

2. "I am the state" - attributed to King Louis XIV (a very probable inaccuracy), asserting the predominance of the monarchy. No date, wiki says most historians don't think he ever said it.

3. "After me the deluge" - attributed to the King Louis XV (or his mistress Madame de Pompadour). Often, 'though perhaps vaguely and tendentiously, interpreted as prophesying the French Revolution. Could also just mean, 'after me, I don't care what happens'. Also no date that I could find.

4. "England expects that every man will do his duty" - Nelson's famous signal to his fleet at the start of the Battle of Trafalgar. Oct 21st 1805.

This is on way too many posters in corporate conference rooms.

My favourite historical quote is the response to a message sent by the invader Philip of Macedon (Alexander the Great's father) to Sparta. His message was: "You are advised to submit without further delay. If I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your arms, slay your people, and raze your city"

The Spartan response was: "If"

All you need to know about democracy by Winston Churchill

This.

I didn't shiver at some things that were posted. I cringed.

I'm also waiting for a pithy historical quote from Catherine the Great and Peter the Great. Someone get on that.

-Zeno

“I have conquered an empire but I have not been able to conquer myself.” Peter the Great

“I praise loudly, I blame softly, I wanna hold your hand” Catherine the Great

"My kingdom for a horse"

"Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."

- Teddy Roosevelt

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/I_have_just_been_shot

Dr. MLK Jr.
August 28, 1963

"They couldn't hit an elephant from that dist...."

- Major John Sedgwick has a run in with the irony gods in 1864.

“My mama always used to tell me: 'If you can't find somethin' to live for, you best find somethin' to die for.”

Tupac Shakur

"awww sh*t, stubbed my ***cking toe again"

Ben Franklin

It is well that war is so terrible - otherwise we would grow too fond of it - Robert E. Lee
at the Battle of Fredericksburg (13th December 1862)

There's something about this that always strikes me as a military enthusiast. While war is always looked back as a glorious and honorable thing, we must never forget that is it also truly horrific.

"To be ignorant of what happened before you were born is to remain forever a child." ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

After admiring Cicero in high school, I came to revile him and his politics when I studied Rome in college, but I absolutely love that quote. I still use it as the header on my syllabus for Ancient History.

Dont want to fill the place up with Churchillisms and its not his best but it came up on the radio and made be smile.

Churchill on Sir Stafford Cripps:

"There but for the grace of god goes god"

As a lover of cicero myself, can't believe i had not heard that one. Truly fantastic.

I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.

-nathan hale

from a poem not really a quote:

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, 

when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, 

when we arrive safely because we sailed too close to the shore.

- sir francis drake


the Drake quote/poem is great. I think as a kid i read a very good, interesting book about him. Have to find it again and give it another try.

A little rule, a little sway, a sunbeam in a winter's day...

"War is the health of the state," -- Randolph Bourne.

From his book War and the Intellectuals in which he skewers liberals who think the Great War will advance Progressivism. He argues that war always strengthens government tyranny.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randolph_Bourne

You know that is a Russian aphorism that means "we will outlive you," right?