15 quotes
When asked what boys should learn, he replied, “That which they will use when men.”
Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men (1887)
When he was invited to hear the man who imitated the nightingale, he declined, saying: "I have heard the bird herself."
Accepting an inferior seat at a public dancing, Agesilaus said, “It is not the places which grace men, but men the places.”
Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men (1887)
From this course of life, we reap liberty.
Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men (1887)
He was always declaring that justice was the first of the virtues; for valour was of no use unless justice attended it, and if all men should be just, there would be no need of valour.
When asked why they wore their hair long, he replied, “Because of all personal ornaments it costs the least.”
Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men (1887)
Having kept at a distance the enemies of Sparta, he could say, “No Spartan woman has ever seen the smoke of the enemy’s camp.”
Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men (1887)
When a well-contrived but difficult plan to free Greece was proposed to Agis II, he replied, “Friend, thy words need an army and a treasure.”
Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men (1887)
Youth, thy words need an army.
Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men (1887)
When asked where the boundaries of Sparta were, he replied, “On the points of our spears.”
Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men (1887)
To one commending the skill of a certain orator in magnifying petty matters, the king replied, “I do not think that shoemaker a good workman who makes a great shoe for a little foot.”
Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men (1887)
Observing that a certain malefactor bore torture with remarkable firmness, he said, “What a great rogue he must be, whose courage and constancy are bestowed on crime alone!”
Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men (1887)
He showed the citizens in arms to one who asked why Sparta had no walls, with the words, “These are the walls of Sparta.” He used to say that “cities should be walled with the courage of the inhabitants.”
Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men (1887)
On his death-bed, charging his friends that no fiction or counterfeit (so he called statues) should be made of him, Agesilaus said, “If I have done any honorable exploit, that is my monument; but if I have done none, all your statues will signify nothing.”
Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men (1887)
When asked what good the laws of Lycurgus had brought to Sparta, he replied, “Contempt of pleasure;” and in answer to the question how he acquired his great reputation for bravery, “By contemning death.” Agis II made the same answer when asked how a man could be always free.
Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men (1887)