Genealogy itself is something of a privilege, coming far more easily to those of us for whom enslavement, conquest, and dispossession of our land has not been our lot.

Perhaps that is the greatest crime of conquest--that a civilization is denied the right to evolve beyond its own embarrassment.

Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act which deprived a whole nation of arms as the blackest.

The history of interactions among disparate peoples is what shaped the modern world through conquest, epidemics and genocide. Those collisions created reverberations that have still not died down after many centuries, and that are actively continuing in some of the world's most troubled areas.

Still, being fragile creatures, humans always try to hide from themselves the certainty that they will die. They do not see that it is death itself that motivates them to do the best things in their lives. They are afraid to step into the dark, afraid of the unknown, and their only way of conquering that fear is to ignore the fact that their days are numbered. They do not see that with an awareness of death, they would be able to be even more daring, to go much further in their daily conquests, because then they would have nothing to lose- for death itself is inevitable.

To joy in conquest is to joy in the loss of human life.

When an unconquered country is conquered, people are killed... . That the beloved of the Gods finds very pitiful and grievous. ... If anyone does him wrong, it will be forgiven as far as it can be forgiven... . The beloved of the Gods considers that the greatest of all victories is the victory of righteousness.

To conquer with arms is to make only a temporary conquest; to conquer the world by earning its esteem is to make a permanent conquest.

War will of itself discover and lay open the hidden and rankling wounds of the victorious party.

Minds are conquered not by arms, but by love and magnanimity.

The right of conquest has no foundation other than the right of the strongest.

Triumph cannot help being cruel.

In human history a moral victory is always a disaster, for it debauches and degrades both the victor and the vanquished.

Tis man's to fight, but Heaven's to give success.

All victories breed hate, and that over your superior is foolish or fatal.

A conqueror is like a cannonball. He cannot stop of his own accord. He must go on until he runs down or hits something.

He that has gone so far as to cut the claws of the lion, will not feel himself quite secure until he has also drawn his teeth.

The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.

When you have gained a victory, do not push it too far; 'tis sufficient to let the company and your adversary see 'tis in your power but that you are too generous to make use of it.

The spider is the chamberlain in the Palace of the Caesars The owl is the trumpeter on the battlements of Afrasiyah.