Cyrus the Great

“May all the gods whom I settled in their sacred centers ask daily of Bêl and Nâbu that my days be long and may they intercede for my welfare. ... The people of Babylon blessed my kingship, and I settled all the lands in peaceful abodes.”

“Do what you want, but be prepared in that case to be ruled rather than to rule others... Soft countries breed soft men. For it is not possible for the same land to bear both wonderful fruits and men who are good at war.”

“You cannot be buried in obscurity: you are exposed upon a grand theater to the view of the world. If your actions are upright and benevolent, be assured they will augment your power and happiness.”

“Diversity in counsel, unity in command.”

“O man, whoever you are and wherever you come from, for I know you will come, I am Cyrus who won the Persians their empire. Do not therefore begrudge me this bit of earth that covers my bones.”

“Whenever you can, act as a liberator. Freedom, dignity, wealth — these three together constitute the greatest happiness of humanity. If you bequeath all three to your people, their love for you will never die.”

“Success always calls for greater generosity — though most people, lost in the darkness of their own egos, treat it as an occasion for greater greed. Collecting boot is not an end itself, but only a means for building an empire. Riches would be of little use to us now — except as a means of winning new friends.”

“In scope and extent his achievement ranked far above that of the Macedonian king, Alexander ("the Great") who was to demolish the empire in the 320s but fail to provide any stable alternative.”

“Cyrus is the only foreigner in the Bible to be identified as the messiah or anointed one of Yahweh, the Israelite God. Isaiah tells us that Yahweh spoke "to his messiah, to Cyrus, whom I [Yahweh] took by his right hand to subdue nations before him" (Isa 45:1). The other people called messiah or anointed one in the Bible aren't designated Yahweh's messiah, as Cyrus is.”