Thucydides Quotes

The strong do what they have to do and the weak accept what they have to accept.

The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it.

War is an evil thing; but to submit to the dictation of other states is worse.... Freedom, if we hold fast to it, will ultimately restore our losses, but submission will mean permanent loss of all that we value.... To you who call yourselves men of peace, I say: You are not safe unless you have men of action on your side.

We must remember that one man is much the same as another, and that he is best who is trained in the severest school.

Some legislators only wish to vengeance against a particular enemy. Others only look out for themselves. They devote very little time on the consideration of any public issue. They think that no harm will come from their neglect. They act as if it is always the business of somebody else to look after this or that. When this selfish notion is entertained by all, the commonwealth slowly begins to decay.

Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and respect of self, in turn, is the chief element in courage.

Most people, in fact, will not take the trouble in finding out the truth, but are much more inclined to accept the first story they hear.

You should punish in the same manner those who commit crimes with those who accuse falsely.

A private man, however successful in his own dealing, if his country perish is involved in her destruction; but if he be an unprosperous citizen of a prosperous city, he is much more likely to recover. Seeing, then, that States can bear the misfortunes of individuals, but individuals cannot bear the misfortunes of States, let us all stand by our country.

When will there be justice in Athens? There will be justice in Athens when those who are not injured are as outraged as those who are.

We Greeks believe that a man who takes no part in public affairs is not merely lazy, but good for nothing

Love of power, operating through greed and through personal ambition, was the cause of all these evils.

Hope is an expensive commodity. It makes better sense to be prepared.

It is from the greatest dangers that the greatest glory is to be won.

Athens' biggest worry was the sheer recklessness of its own democratic government. A simple majority of the citizenry, urged on and incensed by clever demagogues, might capriciously send out military forces in unnecessary and exhausting adventures.

There is no need to suppose that human beings differ very much one from another; but it is true that the ones who come out on top are the ones who have been trained in the hardest school.

The secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom is courage.

Human nature is the one constant through human history. It is always there.

We secure our friends not by accepting favours but by doing them.

If it had not been for the pernicious power of envy, men would not so have exalted vengeance above innocence and profit above justice... in these acts of revenge on others, men take it upon themselves to begin the process of repealing those general laws of humanity which are there to give a hope of salvation to all who are in distress.

When a man finds a conclusion agreeable, he accepts it without argument, but when he finds it disagreeable, he will bring against it all the forces of logic and reason.

He who graduates the harshest school, succeeds.

Ignorance is bold and knowledge reserved.

Knowledge without understanding is useless.

It is a common mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong end, to act first, and wait for disasters to discuss the matter.

When tremendous dangers are involved, no one can be blamed for looking to his own interest.

History is Philosophy teaching by example.

Few things are brought to a successful issue by impetuous desire, but most by calm and prudent forethought.

Amassing of wealth is an opportunity for good deeds, not hubris

It must be thoroughly understood that war is a necessity, and that the more readily we accept it,the less will be the ardor of our opponents, and that out of the greatest dangers communities and individuals acquire the greatest glory.

Peace is an armistice in a war that is continuously going on.

I think the two things most opposed to good counsel are haste and passion; haste usaully goes hand in hand with folly, passion with coarseness and narrowness of mind.

The Peloponnesian War turns out to be no dry chronicle of abstract cause and effect. No, it is above all an intense, riveting, and timeless story of strong and weak men, of heroes and scoundrels and innocents too, all caught in the fateful circumstances of rebellion, plague, and war that always strip away the veneer of culture and show us for what we really are.

The sufferings that fate inflicts on us should be borne with patience, what enemies inflict with manly courage.

The absence of romance from my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest; but if it be judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it, I shall be content. In fine, I have written my work, not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time.

And where the rewards for merit are greatest, there are found the best citizens.

For so remarkably perverse is the nature of man that he despises whoever courts him, and admires whoever will not bend before him.

In a democracy, someone who fails to get elected to office can always console himself with the thought that there was something not quite fair about it.

When one is deprived of ones liberty, one is right in blaming not so much the man who puts the shackles on as the one who had the power to prevent him, but did not use it.

To be an object of hatred and aversion to their contemporaries has been the usual fate of all those whose merit has raised them above the common level. The man who submits to the shafts of envy for the sake of noble objects pursues a judicious course for his own lasting fame. Hatred dies with its object, while merit soon breaks forth in full splendor, and his glory is handed down to posterity in never-dying strains.

So little trouble do men take in the search after truth; so readily do they accept whatever comes first to hand.

Remember that this greatness was won by men with courage, with knowledge of their duty, and with a sense of honor in action.

They are surely to be esteemed the bravest spirits who, having the clearest sense of both the pains and pleasures of life, do not on that account shrink from danger.

You shouldn't feel sorry for the lifestyle you haven't tasted, but for the one you are about to lose

We Greeks are lovers of the beautiful, yet simple in our tastes, and we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness.

In practice we always base our preparations against an enemy on the assumption that his plans are good; indeed, it is right to rest our hopes not on a belief in his blunders, but on the soundness of our provisions. Nor ought we to believe that there is much difference between man and man, but to think that the superiority lies with him who is reared in the severest school.

It is men who make a city, not walls or ships.

Mankind apparently find it easier to drive away adversity than to retain prosperity.

With reference to the narrative of events, far from permitting myself to derive it from the first source that came to hand, I did not even trust my own impressions, but it rests partly on what I saw myself, partly on what others saw for me, the accuracy of the report always being tried by the most severe and detailed tests possible. My conclusions have cost me some labour from the want of coincidence between accounts of the same occurrences by different eye-witnesses, arising sometimes from imperfect memory, sometimes from undue partiality for one side or the other.

The peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learned to cultivate the olive and the vine.