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“...Turn our thoughts, in the next place, to the characters of learned men. The priesthood have, in all ancient nations, nearly monopolized learning. Read over again all the accounts we have of Hindoos, Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Celts, Teutons, we shall find that priests had all the knowledge, and really governed all mankind. Examine Mahometanism, trace Christianity from its first promulgation; knowledge has been almost exclusively confined to the clergy. And, even since the Reformation, when or where has existed a Protestant or dissenting sect who would tolerate a free inquiry? The blackest billingsgate, the most ungentlemanly insolence, the most yahooish brutality is patiently endured, countenanced, propagated, and applauded. But touch a solemn truth in collision with a dogma of a sect, though capable of the clearest proof, and you will soon find you have disturbed a nest, and the hornets will swarm about your legs and hands, and fly into your face and eyes.

[Letters to John Taylor, 1814, XVIII, p. 484]”
― John Adams, The Letters of John and Abigail Adams

“Our enemies are Medes and Persians, men who for centuries have lived soft and luxurious lives; we of Macedon for generations past have been trained in the hard school of danger and war. Above all, we are free men, and they are slaves. There are Greek troops, to be sure, in Persian service â€� but how different is their cause from ours! They will be fighting for pay â€� and not much of at that; we, on the contrary, shall fight for Greece, and our hearts will be in it. As for our foreign troops â€� Thracians, Paeonians, Illyrians, Agrianes â€� they are the best and stoutest soldiers in Europe, and they will find as their opponents the slackest and softest of the tribes of Asia. And what, finally, of the two men in supreme command? You have Alexander, they â€� Darius!”
― Alexander the Great

“In the foreign country, we call the past, crucifixion was a common punishment. It was invented by the Persians, carried back to Europe by Alexander the Great, and widely used in Mediterranean empires.”
― Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined

“For it was not a god invading Greece, but a man; and no man now existed or ever would exist who was not liable to misfortune from the day of his birthâ€� and the greater the man, the greater the misfortune. Their invader therefore, being only human, was bound to fall from his glory.”
― Herodotus, Histories

“It is said that when Darius first learned what had happened he gave no thought to the Ionians, knowing full well that they would be made to pay for their revolt; but he asked who the Athenians were, and then, on being told, called for his bow. Taking it up, he set an arrow on the string, shot it into the air, and said, “Grant, O Zeus, that I may punish the Athenians.â€� Then he ordered one of his servants every day, when his dinner was served, to repeat to him three times the words, “Master, remember the Athenians.”
― Herodotus, Histories

“Was there a nation in Asia that Xerxes did not take with him against Greece? Was there a river, except the greatest, that his army did not drink dry?”
― Herodotus, Histories

“Sanctions levied
Sanctions heavy
Break my back
But you will not end me

Many have assailed�
Many have failed
Pack after pack
Blood shed but to no avail

Had my share of years
Had my share of tears
SAVAK to crack
A century of polluted atmosphere

This is my land
This is my clan
Turn the clock back
I'm as old as the history of man

Gone are the golden days
Gone are the golden ways
Stopped in my tracks
Time will lead me out of this maze

Keep my people in pain
Keep my people in chains
Wrapped in my flag
The end welcomes tyranny's campaign

Levy your sanctions
Heavy my reaction
From The Burnt City to Ganzak
I, Simurgh, will rise from the ashes

History will go round
History will go down
Evil, domestic and foreign
Will burn to the ground

Time bears witness
Time bears justice
Our mystic misfortune
A lingering dark nimbus

Rise up my wings
Rise up my kings
This majestic sovereign
Will be reborn once again”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Letter 19

“بشریت هنر عشق ورزیدن بدون دشمن ساختن است”
― P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar

“You do know that I have an Iranian passport and from the looks of things, we aren’t welcome in a lot of places in the world.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish