Sophocles’ Oedipus the King
I have no desire to suffer twice, in reality and then in retrospect.-Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
Dhamek Stupa, India
It is better to travel well than to arrive.
-Buddha
The Pantheon
An angelic, not a human, design.
-Michelangelo
Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics or Poetics
Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny.
Trajan’s Victory Column
The story of Emperor Trajan’s victory over a mighty barbarian empire isn’t just one for the books. It’s also told in 155 scenes carved in a spiral frieze on a monumental column.
Juvenal’s Satires
What folks have done ever since—their hopes and fears and anger, their pleasures, joys, and toing and froing—is my volume’s hotch-potch.
Arch of Titus
SENATUS
POPOLUS QUE ROMANUS
DIVO TITO DIVI VESPASIANI F
VISPASIANO AUGUSTO
The Colosseum, Rome
Rome will exist as long as the Coliseum does; when the Coliseum falls, so will Rome; when Rome falls, so will the world. -Venerable Bede
Josephus’ The Jewish War
Of its style my readers must be left to judge; but, as concerning truth, I would not hesitate boldly to assert that, throughout the entire narrative, this has been my single aim.
Seneca’s On Tranquility of Mind
We suffer more in imagination than in reality.
–Seneca
