In these indeterminate and fear-filled times, take heart from the following words of courage and self-sacrifice of the ancient Spartans, saviors of Western Civilization through their heroic action at the “Hot Gates” of Thermopylae:

"Return with your shield or on it" was every Spartan Mother's wartime farewell to her son.

“Go, stranger, and to Lacedaemon tell that here, obeying her behests, we fell.” Memorial inscription to King Leonidas (the Lion), his personal bodyguard of 300 Spartans, the Spartans Helots, and Thespians that all died to a man, forsaking retreat, at the Battle of Thermopylae, August 20, 480 BCE.

Before the beginning of the Battle of Thermopylae, the Persians sent emissaries to bribe the Greeks to give up their arms. Leonidas rejected the offer by saying: "Molon Lave!" ("Come and get them!").