“There is small risk a general will be regarded with contempt by those he leads, if, whatever he may have to preach, he shows himself best able to perform.”

— Xenophon

The Cavalry General, ch. 6, as translated by Henry Graham Dakyns in The Cavalry General (2004) p. 26.

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Xenophon 21

ancient Greek historian and philosopher -430–-354 BC

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

Pequeño es aquel que para mostrarse esconde.
Voces (1943)

“Delegation means that he will concern himself with the results of their activities and not with the details of their day-to-day performance. This requires a degree of confidence in them which enables him to accept certain risks. Unless he takes these risks there will be no delegation.”

Douglas McGregor (1906–1964) American professor

Source: The Human Side of Enterprise (1960), p. 220 (in 2006 edition)

“That is why man can also never understand himself: For he is himself a timeless act; an act which he performs continuously, and there is no moment in which he might not perform it, as there would have to be to understand himself.”

Otto Weininger (1880–1903) austrian philosopher and writer

Collected Aphorisms

“When Ling was communicating to any person the signs by which messengers might find him, he was compelled to add, "the neighbourhood in which this contemptible person resides is that officially known as 'the mean quarter favoured by the lower class of those who murder by treachery'," and for this reason he was not always treated with the regard to which his attainments entitled him, or which he would have unquestionably received had he been able to describe himself as of "the partly-drained and uninfected area reserved to Mandarins and their friends."”

Ernest Bramah book The Wallet of Kai Lung

The Transmutation of Ling
The Wallet of Kai Lung (1900)

“To come out from under the protective wall of role, habit, and frozen perception, a person must throw himself into a situation of heightened exposure. He must put himself at greater risk to the harm that other people may do to him and to the destructive influence that enlarged experience may have on what he had previously regarded as his enduring core of identity.”

Roberto Mangabeira Unger (1947) Brazilian philosopher and politician

Source: Plasticity Into Power: Comparative-Historical Studies on the Institutional Conditions of Economic and Military Success (1987), pp. 12-13

“A general never shows despair. He instills confidence in his troops. He leads them forward, even into the mouth of death.”

Rick Riordan book The Throne of Fire

Source: The Throne of Fire

“Anybody who performs his necessary duties that God has obliged him perform, he himself will be one of the best worshippers of all.”

Ali Zayn al-Abidin (659–713) Great-grandson of the Prophet Muhammad

Muhammad al-Hur al-Aamili, Wasā'il al-Shī‘ah, vol.11, p. 206.
Religious wisdom

“Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his goals, if he is able to think, if he is able to wait, if he is able to fast.”

Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) German writer

As translated by Ejvind Haas
Siddhartha (1922)
Context: When you throw a rock into the water, it will speed on the fastest course to the bottom of the water. This is how it is when Siddhartha has a goal, a resolution. Siddhartha does nothing, he waits, he thinks, he fasts, but he passes through the things of the world like a rock through water, without doing anything, without stirring; he is drawn, he lets himself fall. His goal attracts him, because he doesn't let anything enter his soul which might oppose the goal. This is what Siddhartha has learned among the Samanas. This is what fools call magic and of which they think it would be effected by means of the daemons. Nothing is effected by daemons, there are no daemons. Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his goals, if he is able to think, if he is able to wait, if he is able to fast.

“No matter how strong and dedicated a leader may be, he must find root and strength amongst the people. He alone cannot save a nation. He may guide, he may set the tone, he may dedicate himself and risk his life, but only the people may save themselves.”

Ferdinand Marcos (1917–1989) former President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986

Address at the launching of the Mabuhay Ang Pilipino Movement, Malacañang (30 November 1972)
1965

“In the depth of his soul he knew that his action was so base, abominable and cruel that, with that action upon his conscience, not only would he have no right to condemn others but he should not be able to look others in the face, to say nothing of considering himself the good, noble, magnanimous man he esteemed himself. And he had to esteem himself as such in order to be able to continue to lead a valiant and joyous life. And there was but one way of doing so, and that was not to think of it. This he endeavored to do.”

Leo Tolstoy book Resurrection

Source: Resurrection (1899), Ch. 18

“There is small risk a general will be regarded with contempt by those he leads, if, whatever he may have to preach, he shows himself best able to perform.”

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Xenophon 21

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