A Spartan told a man who was angry at being exiled, “Good friend, it is exile from justice, not from your city, you should dread.”
A man asked, “How can Spartans confidently face danger in war?” The rely, “Because we practice proper respect for life, not fear of it like the rest of mankind.”
An Athenian called a Spartan uneducated. The reply was, “At least we are the only ones who have learned nothing wicked from you.”
An Athenian was giving a funeral eulogy in praise of some men killed by Spartans. A Spartan noticing this said, “What, then, do you think was the quality of the men that defeated them?”
When the sophist Hecataeus was invited to the Spartan mess and said nothing, he came under criticism. The King Archidamidas, who was present, said, “Evidently you don’t understand that an expert at speaking also knows when to speak.”
Someone asked Demaratus, a Spartan King, how he could be exiled. His reply, “Because Spartan laws are more powerful than I am.”