Photos shot from the excellent book ‘How to think about war‘ by Johanna Hanink (Brown University, published by Princeton Press):

Lessons:

1. Hardship is easier to fend off than prosperity is to maintain.
2. As circumstances change, so does resolve.
3. You are slaves to the latest fashion and scorn anything you already understand. What you desire the most is the ability to give a good speech (in order to seem clever).
4. A city is stronger when it has inferior but unbendable laws than when it has good laws with no real authority. Ignorance coupled with self-restraint is more advantageous than intelligence that knows no checks. Simpler people are usually better than smarter ones at running cities.
5. Hatred is fleeting, but even momentary splendor leaves an enduring fame that forever persists in memory.
6. Understand that Athens’ name is the greatest in the world precisely because it does not yield to circumstance and because it expends more bodies and effort on war than any other state (same goes with the USA).
7. We have to face what heaven sends with acquiescence and what our enemies send with courage.
8. The best confidence is when we have confidence in our own superiority. Don’t depend on hope which takes its strength from helplessness. Judgement grounded in reality is the most solid.
9. It is more shameful to be stripped of what you already have than to fail at acquiring more.
10. Best to face our enemies with contempt. Pride is for cowards, but the right to disdain and contempt others is reserved for those who have good reasons to understand they are superior to their enemies.
11. Honor is the one thing that never grows old. Honor brings the most joy (not wealth) in old age!
12. Pursue plain spartan beauty (rather than extravagant beauty) and focus on cultivating wisdom without being ‘effete’
13. Unfortunately, war is a necessary component to a great and powerful society.
14. The reward of immense danger is immense honor.
15. Best to prevent making foolish mistakes ourselves than the great schemes of the other.
16. If you kowtow or capitulate to others, they will bully you over something bigger int he future, when you succumb to fear. When you are firm and refuse to bow, others will treat you as equals ***
17. Naivete is good, foolishness is bad.
18. To parade your own self-righteousness is empty and vain.
19. Only be lenient towards others who might be helpful to us in the future.