Be convinced that to be happy means to be free and that to be free means to be brave. Therefore do not take lightly the perils of war.
Thucydides

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

History is Philosophy teaching by examples.
Thucydides

Ignorance is bold and knowledge reserved.
Thucydides

It is frequently a misfortune to have very brilliant men in charge of affairs. They expect too much of ordinary men.
Thucydides

Justice will not come to Athens until those who are not injured are as indignant as those who are injured.
Thucydides

Men naturally despise those who court them, but respect those who do not give way to them.
Thucydides

Men's indignation, it seems, is more excited by legal wrong than by violent wrong; the first looks like being cheated by an equal, the second like being compelled by a superior.
Thucydides

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.
Thucydides

The secret to happiness is freedom... And the secret to freedom is courage.
Thucydides


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

Wars spring from unseen and generally insignificant causes, the first outbreak being often but an explosion of anger.
Thucydides

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

We secure our friends not by accepting favors but by doing them.
Thucydides