George Washington: Address to the Continental Congress, June 16, 1775: “Mr. President, Tho’ I am truly sensible of the high Honour done...

Come now, tell me truly.” Artabanos answered him, “Sire, may the vision that appeared in that dream be fulfilled in accordance with what...

I perused your Tracts with Pleasure. I see you inherit all the various Learning of your famous Ancestors Cotton and Increase Mather both...

There is a very well-worn form of consolation which we should always have on our lips and in our minds. We must remember that we are but...

“…no one excels in big things who fails in small things.” Quintilian. Quintilian, The Orator’s Education Books 1-2. Loeb Classical...

Cleomenes King of Sparta: He himself instructed all by his example; he was a living pattern of temperance before every man’s eyes; and...

Before a battle the Athenian General Phocion placed his soldiers in a battle line: Afterwards, having formed the battle, one who wished...

When at the table of Valerius Leo, who entertained him at supper at Milan, a dish of asparagus was put before him on which his host...

Our general, having business to transact with the Director Carnot, a former member of the Convention, at that time Minister of War,...

Mark Twain and a group traveled through Utah and on the way stopped in for a visit to Brigham Young, the head of the Mormon church:

Grant's entrance into Washington was consistent with him image as an unpretentious man of action, the polar opposite of McClellan. He walked into the Willard Hotel at dusk, accompanied only by his teenage son, Fred. Unrecognized by the desk clerk, he was told that nothing was available except a small room on the top floor. The situation was remedied only when the embarrassed clerk looked at the signature in the register‑‑U. S. Grant and son, Galena, Illinois-and immediately s

It was also a matter of record that Washington had been retired from military life for fifteen years, during which he had not even drilled a militia company. His only prior experience had been in backwoods warfare – a very different kind of warfare – and most notably in the Braddock campaign of 1755, which had been a disaster. He was by no means as experienced commander. He had never led an army in battle, never before commanded anything larger than a regiment. And never had

No one thought that Nathanael Greene would become one of the greatest leaders in American history:

At the time I establish'd myself in Pennsylvania, there was not a good bookseller's shop in any of the colonies to the southward of Boston. In New York and Philad'a the printers were indeed stationers; they sold only paper, etc., almanacs, ballads, and a few common school-books. Thos who lov'd reading were oblig'd to send for their books from England; the members of the Junto had each a few. We had left the alehouse, where we first met, and hired a room to hold our club in. I

If someone brings you word that So-and-so is speaking ill of you, do not defend yourself against what has been said, but answer, “Yes, indeed, for he did not know the rest of the faults that attach to me; if he had, these would not have been the only ones he mentioned.”

I.2 A. Our rabbis have taught on Tannaite authority:

I.1 A. Our rabbis have taught on Tannaite authority: