Sparta was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon, while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement on the banks of the Eurotas River in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. Profoundly inspirational spartan quotes will encourage growth in life, make you wiser and broaden your perspective.
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Famous Spartan Quotes
You should reach the limits of virtue before you cross the border of death. Aristodemus
If we were bees, ants, or Lacedaemonian| warriors, to whom personal fear does not exist and cowardice is the most shameful thing in the world, warring would go on forever. But luckily we are only men and cowards. Erwin Schrodinger
Either quit your thieving or quit breathing. Spartan Mother
Come back with your shield, or on it. Queen Gorgo
There is no use for bravery unless justice is present, and no need for bravery if all men are just. Agesilaus
And I would die for any one of mine. King Leonidas
If you confer a benefit, never remember it; if you receive one, never forget it. Chilon of Sparta
Feel no fear before the multitude of men, do not run in panic, but let each man bear his shield straight toward the fore fighters, regarding his own life as hateful and holding the dark spirits of death as dear as the radiance of the sun. Tyrtaeus
Come back with your shield, or upon it. Spartan Mother
Men are not born equal in themselves, so I think it beneath a man to postulate that they are. If I thought myself as good as Sokrates I should be a fool; and if, not really believing it, I asked you to make me happy by assuring me of it, you would rightly despise me. So why should I insult my fellow citizens by treating them as fools and cowards? A man who thinks himself as good as everyone else will be at no pains to grow better. On the other hand, I might think myself as good as Sokrates, and even persuade other fools to agree with me; but under a democracy, Sokrates is there in the Agora to prove me wrong. I want a city where I can find my equals and respect my betters, whoever they are; and where no one can tell me to swallow a lie because it is expedient, or some other man’s will. Mary Renault
Son, remember your courage with each step. Spartan Mother
Ancient politicians talked incessantly about morality and virtue; our politicians talk only about business and money. One will tell you that in a particular country a man is worth the sum he could be sold for in Algiers; another, by following this calculation, will find countries where a man is worth nothing, and others where he is worth less than nothing. They assess men like herds of livestock. According to them, a man has no value to the State apart from what he consumes in it. Thus one Sybarite would have been worth at least thirty Lacedaemonians. Would someone therefore hazard a guess which of these two republics, Sparta or Sybaris, was overthrown by a handful of peasants and which one made Asia tremble? Jean Jacques Rousseau
If numbers are what matters, all Greece cannot match a small part of that army; but if courage is what counts, this number is sufficient. Leonidas
It was natural for Spartan women to think and speak as Gorgo, the wife of Leonidas, is said to have done, when some foreign lady, as it would seem, told her that the women of Lacedaemon were the only women of the world who could rule men; With good reason, she said, for we are the only women who bring forth men. Plutarch
Being asked where in Greece he saw good men, he replied, Good men nowhere, but good boys at Sparta. Diogenes
Political writers argue in regard to the love of liberty with the same philosophy that philosophers do in regard to the state of nature; by the things they see they judge of things very different which they have never seen, and they attribute to men a natural inclination to slavery, on account of the patience with which the slaves within their notice carry the yoke; not reflecting that it is with liberty as with innocence and virtue, the value of which is not known but by those who possess them, though the relish for them is lost with the things themselves. I know the charms of your country, said Brasidas to a satrap who was comparing the life of the Spartans with that of the Persepolites; but you can not know the pleasures of mine. Jean Jacques Rousseau
That city is well fortified which has a wall of men instead of brick. Lycurgus of Sparta
You don’t have to be rich and famous to have adventures! Edmond P. DeRousse
The Gods will take care of the King’s Army. Demaratus
In this way, the Spartans erected a moral barrier between themselves and the helots to justify their harsh treatment of fellow Greeks. For all these reasons, the helots hated the Spartans bitterly. Thomas R. Martin
The walls of Sparta were its young men, and its borders the points of their spears. Agesilaus, Spartan King
You are my heart, he Eryx said. I will kill any man and turn the whole world to ash for you, my warrior. I fear neither battle nor death, but I fear the day you are not by my side. Never question where my heart lies, because it’s forever yours. In this life and the next. Jaclyn Osborn
The daughters of Sparta are never at home! They mingle with the young men in wrestling matches. Euripides
Demaratus, being asked in a troublesome manner by an importunate fellow, Who was the best man in Lacedaemon? answered at last, He, Sir, that is the least like you. Plutarch
Only Spartan women give birth to real men. Gorgo
Polybius credited the Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus with the invention of mixed government. Naturally, mixed governments themselves would eventually succumb to degeneration. But this process would take centuries rather than decades. This was shown by the examples of Sparta, the Republic of Carthage, and Rome. J.R.Nyquist
They say that the barbarian has come near and is coming on while we are wasting time. Truth, soon we shall either kill the barbarians or else we are bound to be killed ourselves. Leonidas
Stranger, go back to Sparta and tell our people that we who were slain obeyed the code. Simonides
Come and take them. Leonidas
Spartans tended to be silent, or say very little. They were encouraged to give answers that were as short as possible, a style called Laconic since the Spartans came from Laconia. The Spartans would have been amazing users of Twitter. Their tweets would have been supremely concise, abrupt and rude. They made short answers into an art form. The ideal was to produce just one word answers to devastate their enemies. Tom Strabo
Won’t it be nice, then, if we shall have shade in which to fight them? Leonidas
Modern armies all follow the Spartan pattern. If you want to overcome adversity, you must constantly rehearse encountering adversity. Then, when real adversity arrives, you know how to deal with it, and you are not fazed by it. Tom Strabo
Eat your breakfast as if you are to eat your dinner in the other world.Leonidas
Their Lacadaemonian women, it is said, were bold and masculine, overbearing to their husbands in the first place, absolute mistresses in their houses, giving their opinions about public matters freely, and speaking openly even on the most important subjects. Plutarch
If you men think that I rely on numbers, then all Greece is not sufficient, for it is but a small fraction of their numbers; but if on men’s valor, then this number will do. Leonidas
The daughters of Sparta are never at home! They mingle with the young men in wrestling matches. Euripides
We are on the path toward becoming the Sparta of the 21st century, armed to the teeth and without the capacity to care for our own people. Dennis Kucinich
Spartans, eat well, for tonight we dine in Hades. King Leonidas
Because we fight close to the enemy. King Agesilaus
He who sweats more in training bleeds less in war. Spartan Warrior
The growth of the power of Athens and the alarm which this inspired in Sparta made war inevitable. Thucydides
Foreign lady once remarked to the wife of a Spartan commander that the women of Sparta were the only women in the world who could rule men. We are the only women who raise men, the Spartan lady replied. Plutarch
I think, when we were in Sparta and all that just getting in the groove. Zack Snyder
Come back with your shield or on it. Plutarch
Little Sparta is a garden in the traditional sense. It is perhaps not like other modern gardens, but I think that other times would have had no difficulty with it. Ian Hamilton Finlay
Being asked where in Greece he saw good men, he replied, Good men nowhere, but good boys at Sparta. Diogenes
What made the war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta. Thucydides
Feel no fear before the multitude of men, do not run in panic, but let each man bear his shield straight toward the fore fighters, regarding his own life as hateful and holding the dark spirits of death as dear as the radiance of the sun. Sparta
Julian was the son of Diokles of Sparta, also known as Diokles the Butcher. That man made the Marquis de Sade look like Ronald McDonald. Sherrilyn Kenyon
Rise up, warriors, take your stand at one another’s sides, our feet set wide and rooted like oaks in the ground learn to love death’s ink black shadow as much as you love the light of dawn. Here is courage, mankind’s finest possession, here is the noblest prize that a young man can endeavour to win. Tyrtaeus
Rome remained free for four hundred years and Sparta eight hundred, although their citizens were armed all that time; but many other states that have been disarmed have lost their liberties in less than forty years. Niccolo Machiavelli
Because fear makes each man do his best to shelter his unarmed right side with the shield of the man next to him, thinking that the closer the shields are locked together the better will he be protected. Thucydides on why hoplite armies edge to the right as the battle begins. Sparta
A traveler at Sparta, standing long upon one leg, said to a Lacedaemonian, I do not believe you can do as much. True, he said, but every goose can. Plutarch
That city is well fortified which has a wall of men instead of brick. Lycurgus of Sparta
Mental toughness is spartanism with qualities of sacrifice, self denial, dedication. It is fearlessness, and it is love. Vince Lombardi
There’s no room for softness not in Sparta. No place for weakness. Only the hard and strong may call themselves Spartans. Only the hard, only the strong. Dilios
A Spartan woman, as she handed her son his shield, exhorted him saying, As a warrior of Sparta come back with your shield or on it. Plutarch
There is no use for bravery unless justice is present, and no need for bravery if all men are just. Agesilaus
Either with it or upon it. Spartan mother
The Spartans are the equal of any men when they fight as individuals; fighting together as a collective, they surpass all other men. Damaratus
Here is courage, mankind’s finest possession; here is the noblest prize that a young man can endeavor to win. Tyrtaeus
You should reach the limits of virtue before you cross the border of death. Dilios
Rise up, warriors; take your stand at one another’s sides, your feet set wide and rooted like oaks in the ground. Tyrtaeus
Have a good breakfast men, for we dine in Hades! King Leonidas
Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie. Steven Pressfield
