Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)
“Do you esteem men by their number rather than by their valour and prowess?”
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Gargantua (1534), Chapter 43.
Context: Being come down from thence towards Seville, they were heard by Gargantua, who said then unto those that were with him, Comrades and fellow-soldiers, we have here met with an encounter, and they are ten times in number more than we. Shall we charge them or no? What a devil, said the monk, shall we do else? Do you esteem men by their number rather than by their valour and prowess? With this he cried out, Charge, devils, charge! Which when the enemies heard, they thought certainly that they had been very devils, and therefore even then began all of them to run away as hard as they could drive, Drawforth only excepted, who immediately settled his lance on its rest, and therewith hit the monk with all his force on the very middle of his breast, but, coming against his horrific frock, the point of the iron being with the blow either broke off or blunted, it was in matter of execution as if you had struck against an anvil with a little wax-candle.
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Francois Rabelais 105
major French Renaissance writer 1494–1553Related quotes
“The knights in [Britain] that were famous for feats of chivalry, wore their clothes and arms all of the same colour and fashion: and the women also no less celebrated for their wit, wore all the same kind of apparel; and esteemed none worthy of their love, but such as had given a proof of their valour in three several battles. Thus was the valour of the men an encouragement for the women's chastity, and the love of the women a spur to the soldier's bravery.”
Quicumque vero famosus probitate miles in eadem erat unius coloris vestibus atque armis utebatur facete etiam mulieres consimilia indumenta habentes. Nullius amorem habere dignabantur nisi tercio in milicia probates esset. Efficiebantur ergo caste et meliores et milites pro amore illarum probiores.
Bk. 9, ch. 13; pp. 244-5.
Sometimes said to be the earliest reference to love as an ennobling influence.
Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain)
George Washington
(1732–1799) first President of the United States
This is from a set of maxims which Washington copied out in his own hand as a school-boy: "Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents/the-rules-of-civility/" Rule # 56 written out by Washington ca. 1744:
: These maxims originated in the late sixteenth century in France and were popularly circulated during Washington's time. Washington wrote out a copy of the 110 Rules in his school book when he was about sixteen-years old... During the days before mere hero worship had given place to understanding and comprehension of the fineness of Washington's character, of his powerful influence among men, and of the epoch-making nature of the issues he so largely shaped, it was assumed that Washington himself composed the maxims, or at least that he compiled them. It is a satisfaction to find that his consideration for others, his respect for and deference to those deserving such treatment, his care of his own body and tongue, and even his reverence for his Maker, all were early inculcated in him by precepts which were the common practice in decent society the world over. These very maxims had been in use in France for a century and a half, and in England for a century, before they were set as a task for the schoolboy Washington.
:* Charles Moore in his Introduction to George Washington's Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation (1926) http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents/civility/index.html, edited by Charles Moore, xi-xv
Misattributed
“A general is not easily overcome who can form a true judgment of his own and the enemy's forces. Valour is superior to numbers. The nature of the ground is often of more consequence than courage. (General Maxims)”
Amplius iuuat uirtus quam multitudo.
De Re Militari (also Epitoma Rei Militaris), Book III, "Dispositions for Action"
“A few honest men are better than numbers.”
Oliver Cromwell
(1599–1658) English military and political leader
Letter to Sir William Spring (September 1643)
Vol. 1, letter 37.
Sir Charles Grandison (1753–1754)
Cyrus the Great
(-600–-530 BC) King and founder of the Achaemenid Empire
After being suggested by Artembares, grandfather of Artayctes, to abandon the rocky land of Persia Proper for a better region in the empire.
Source: As quoted by Herodotus, in the final section of The Histories; cited in https://books.google.com/books?id=2fZmqKcsf-wC&pg=PT362&lpg=PT362
“Men are reasoning rather than reasonable animals.”
Alexander Hamilton
(1757–1804) Founding Father of the United States
Source: The Works Of Alexander Hamilton
George Washington
(1732–1799) first President of the United States
Letter of Instructions to the Captains of the Virginia Regiments (29 July 1759)
1750s
Gustave de Molinari
(1819–1912) Belgian political economist and classical liberal theorist
Source: The Production of Security (1849), p. 20