Thucydides Quotes
And it is certain that those who do not yield to their equals, who keep terms with their superiors, and are moderate towards their inferiors, on the whole succeed best.
For the love of gain would reconcile the weaker to the dominion of the stronger, and the possession of capital enabled the more powerful to reduce the smaller cities to subjection.
An avowal of poverty is no disgrace to any man; to make no effort to escape it is indeed disgraceful.
They whose minds are least sensitive to calamity, and whose hands are most quick to meet it, are the greatest men and the greatest communities.
Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.
It is frequently a misfortune to have very brilliant men in charge of affairs. They expect too much of ordinary men.
For men naturally despise those who court them, but respect those who do not give way to them.
It is the habit of mankind to entrust to careless hope what they long for, and to use sovereign reason to thrust aside what they do not desire
He passes through life most securely who has least reason to reproach himself with complaisance toward his enemies.
For they had learned that true safety was to be found in long previous training, and not in eloquent exhortations uttered when they were going into action.
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
Men's indignation, it seems, is more exited by legal wrong than by violent wrong; the first looks like being cheated by an equal, the second like being compelled by a superior.
People get into the habit of entrusting the things they desire to wishful thinking, and subjecting things they don't desire to exhaustive thinking
The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Sparta, made war inevitable.
Wars spring from unseen and generally insignificant causes, the first outbreak being often but an explosion of anger.
Now the only sure basis of an alliance is for each party to be equally afraid of the other
Those who have experienced good and bad luck many times have every reason to be skeptical of successes
Wealth to us is not mere material for vainglory but an opportunity for achievement; and poverty we think it no disgrace to acknowledge but a real degredation to make no effort to overcome.
Hatred also is short lived; but that which makes the splendor of the present and the glory of the future remains forever unforgotten here we bless your simplicity but do not envy your folly.
The cause of all these evils was the lust for power arising from greed and ambition; and from these passions proceeded the violence of parties once engaged in contention.
when night came on, the Macedonians and the barbarian crowd suddenly took fright in one of those mysterious panics to which great armies are liable
But the prize for courage will surely be awarded most justly to those who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger.
we know that there can never be any solid friendship between individuals, or union between communities that is worth the name, unless the parties be persuaded of each others honesty
still hope leads men to venture; and no one ever yet put himself in peril without the inward conviction that he would succeed in his design.
The Thracian people, like the bloodiest of the barbarians, being ever most murderous when it has nothing to fear.
Those who really deserve praise are the people who, while human enough to enjoy power, nevertheless pay more attention to justice than they are compelled to do by their situation.
...knowing the secret of happiness to be freedom, and the secret of freedom a brave heart, not idly to stand aside from the enemy's onset.
In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours.
Of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a necessary law of their nature they rule wherever they can.
What made the war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta.
Men naturally despise those who court them, but respect those who do not give way to them.
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.
Difficulty of subsistence made the invaders reduce the numbers of the army to a point at which it might live on the country during the prosecution of the war.
Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and self-respect is the chief element in courage.
You know and we know, as practical men that the question of justice arises only between parties equal in strength and that the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.