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When somebody reported that the Athenians had sent an army, decked out with novel equipment, into the Pelopennese, he said, "Why should Antigenidas cry if Tellen has a new flute or two?" (Tellen was the worst of flute-players, and Antigenidas the best.)

— Epaminondas

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More quotes by Epaminondas

When the Spartans accused the Thebans of a long list of serious offences, he retorted, "These Thebans, however, have put a stop to your brevity of speech!"

Epaminondas is reported wittily to have said of a good man that died about the time of the battle of Leuctra, "How came he to have so much leisure as to die, when there was so much stirring?"

As to supposing that I am emulous of Agamemnon, you are mistaken; for he, with the support of all Greece, hardly took one city in ten years; I, on the contrary with the force of this one city of ours, and in one day, delivered all Greece by defeating the Lacedaemonians.

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