Steven Pressfield

Why have I nominated you, lady, to bear up beneath this most terrible of trials, you and your sisters of the Three Hundred? Because you can.

If you think this is funny, wait 'till you get into combat. You'll think that's hysterical!

I had always wondered what it felt like to die.

I have always found the spear to be a rather inelegant weapon

There is something I must tell you. When Leonidas selected you for the Three Hundred, I went to him in private and argued strenuously against your inclusion. I thought you would not fight. [...] I was wrong.

You have never tasted freedom friend, or you would know it is purchased not with gold, but steel.