Thucydides Quotes

‘The secret to happiness is freedom… And the secret to freedom is courage.’ – 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

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

‘Ignorance is bold and knowledge reserved.’ – Thucydides

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

‘History is Philosophy teaching by example.’ – Thucydides

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

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

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

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

‘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

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

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