Aleksandra Layland

“And do you see how beautiful and graceful the birds are when they are flying and soaring? The ground has many comforts for them to enjoy... But in the sky they are truly what a bird is meant to be. So it is with the human heart.”

“You study the Path of Peace. I practice the Art of War. There are some congruities between these different approaches but there are many more differences, and they are significant. The Art of War is carried out on the battlefield with deadly weaponry and sometimes, more importantly, in other places and in other ways that you would find distasteful. If I speak little about my plans it's because the Art of War teaches that it is the business of a general to ensure secrecy. You might want to mollify or change my tactics or strategies to fit the morals of your peacetime world and I'd be shackled and hampered in seeing the victory won as it should be, as quickly as possible, with as little fighting as possible, and at the lowest cost possible. You cannot bear the consequences of battle and you don't know the resources required. I do.”

“The source of evil is desire, greed, and anger.”

“The trees were his chapel and the hillsides his cathedral.”

“If we go to war, it must only be with right on our side.”

“I want you with me, my dearest. Not just as a friend, though also as that. I want you as my wife. I want to know that we share our lives and cares, we share our health and ill, and we share our happiness and sorrow.”

“I always knew a good man should do no bad deeds, but it never occurred to me that a good man must do good deeds. He cannot just sit back and do nothing. He cannot just relax and let things happen around him. He must act or his faith is meaningless, mere words or thoughts.”

“Her joyful spirit would bring laughter and happiness to anyone in her life with the same natural ease that a rose blooms and sheds its perfume.”

“We had little but we didn't know we had little. It seemed to us that we had much and we were very content.”

“After all, plans are one thing; then the battle happens.”

“Among the Kimbrii the greatest shame a person can bring to himself or his clan is to start a war, but the second greatest is to submit to tyranny or injustice without a fight.”

“What is it that makes us who we are and what we are? Is it only our blood, the color of our hair, our skin, and our eyes? Or is it believing in what we believe and living the way we live?”

“Into every life may come tragedy and triumph. Our goal is to meet both equally with serenity and radiant acquiescence. Yet even from the storm clouds of tragedy, rainbows can appear.”

“Defeating the enemy through deception with little loss of life is better than fighting face-to-face with the loss of many lives on both sides.”

“Grief, as in everything, should be experienced in moderation. There is a time to grieve heavily but then there is a time to set it aside and become happy in life again.”

“A noble and resolute people can safely tread a dark and fearsome path if they always shine before them the lamps of wisdom and valor.”

“He believed with all his heart that we should spend our lives in happiness and service, in joy and work, in kindness and in love, and he lived... and died... what he believed.”

“There is something to be said about the vastness of the earth, as well as the vastness of the heavens, in reminding us how small we are and how great God's creation is.”

“We must find within us a happiness with ourselves which no one else can disturb. Otherwise we give them power over us.”

“God's greatest gift to mankind is our intellect. Even for those of you who are not of the faithful, the sheer logic alone cannot be denied. Education lifts a people to greater ability and achievement.”