My strength uproots mountains, my spirit overshadows the world.
力抜山兮気蓋世、時不利兮騅不逝。騅不逝兮可奈何、虞兮虞兮奈若何。
Military Strategists
Xiang Yu
The 'Hegemon-King of Western Chu' whose raw military genius made him the most feared commander of ancient China's civil wars (232-202 BCE). Xiang Yu won every battle but lost the war — his career is history's definitive case study in how tactical brilliance without political strategy leads to ultimate defeat.
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Xiang Yu's Other Quotes
Heaven destroys me — it is not a failure of warfare.
Learning to write is merely enough to record one's name. The sword defeats but a single foe and is not worth mastering. I shall study the art of defeating ten thousand.
Writing is only good for recording names. Swordsmanship defeats one man — that's not worth learning. I want to learn what defeats ten thousand.
Related Quotes
Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom.
-- Hermann Hesse
The supreme elegance is to be a good man.
-- Victor Hugo
Brevity is the soul of wit.
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The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.
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I loved you: love perhaps has not yet faded entirely from my soul.
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This world, I think of it as my own, like the full moon lacking nothing at all.
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