Quotes from Thucydides

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

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

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.

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.

He passes through life most securely who has least reason to reproach himself with complaisance toward his enemies.

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

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

The strength of an Army lies in strict discipline and undeviating obedience to its officers.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

Don't confuse meaning with truth.

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

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

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

I am not blaming those who are resolved to rule, only those who show an even greater readiness to submit.

War is a matter not so much of arms as of money.

I am more afraid of our own blunders than of the enemy's devices.

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.

good deeds can be shortly stated but where wrong is done a wealth of language is needed to veil its deformity.

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