215 Quotes by Thucydides

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.

For these reasons or reasons very like them he was killedwho, of all the Hellenes in my time, least deserved to cometo so miserable an end, since the whole of his life had been devotedto the study and the practice of virtue.

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.

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.

Events of future history will be of the same nature - or nearly so - as the history of the past, so long as men are men.

It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable.

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.

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.

Not courage alone, therefore, but an actual sense of your superiority should animate you as you go forward against the enemy. Confidence, out of a mixture of ignorance and good luck, can be felt even by cowards; but this sense of superiority comes only to those who, like us, have real reasons for knowing that they are better placed than their opponents. And when the chances on both sides are equal, it is intelligence that confirms courage.