He who does not know the past cannot understand the present, nor shape the future.

The mercy of late birth.

Flowering landscapes.

Empty is the philosopher's argument that does not heal any human suffering.

-- Epicurus

My predecessors ruled but I know nothing about them, and so I do what I do that people may remember me.

-- Mansa Musa

A nation's hundred-year plan rests on education.

-- Itō Hirobumi

Gentlemen, life is short. Never waste your mind on trivial matters. Study much, work much, think much, laugh much.

-- Ōkuma Shigenobu

Nothing is more impossible than what Napoleon faced.

-- Ōkuma Shigenobu

I am not given to making sense out of life — or coming up with some grand narrative on it — other than to measure it by what you think you want to do in life.

-- Lee Kuan Yew