The Spartans do not inquire how many the enemy are, but where they are.
PLUTARCH: Laconic Apothegms. Being asked what was chiefly learned at Sparta, he replied, “To know how to govern, and to be governed.”—Ibid.
He said to an orator who asserted that speech was the best thing, “You, then, when you are silent, are worth nothing.”—Ibid.
Agis IV., called by Plutarch “the younger,” king of Sparta 244–240 B.C., replied to the jeer of an Athenian at the Lacedæmonian short-swords, “The jugglers would easily swallow them,” by saying, “And yet we can reach our enemies’ hearts with them.”—Apothegms of Kings and Great Commanders.
