Thucydides Quotes (76 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

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History of the Peloponnesian War

Thucydides

Thucydides: 76 quotes 85 likes

Famous Thucydides Quotes

“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 History of the Peloponnesian War

Variant translations:<p>But the palm of courage will surely be adjudged most justly to those, who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Thuc.+2.40.3<p>And they are most rightly reputed valiant, who though they perfectly apprehend both what is dangerous and what is easy, are never the more thereby diverted from adventuring. (translation by Thomas Hobbes http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=771&chapter=90127&layout=html&Itemid=27)<p>
Book II, 2.40-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II

“they possess most gold and silver, by which war, like everything else, flourishes.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book VI, 6.34; "they have abundance of gold and silver, and these make war, like other things, go smoothly" ( trans. http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/thucydides/jthucbk6rv2.htm Benjamin Jowett)
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book VI

“The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.”

Thucydides

“Contempt for an assailant is best shown by bravery in action.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book VI, 6.34-[9]; "the true contempt of an invader is shown by deeds of valour in the field" ( trans. http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/thucydides/jthucbk6rv2.htm Benjamin Jowett)
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book VI

“So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Variant translation: "...the search for truth strains the patience of most people, who would rather believe the first things that come to hand." Translation by Paul Woodruff.
Book I, 1.20-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

“History is Philosophy teaching by examples.”

Thucydides

Thucydides Quotes about war

“war is a matter not so much of arms as of money”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book I, 1.83-[2]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

“It must be thoroughly understood that war is a necessity, and that the more readily we accept it, the less will be the ardor of our opponents, and that out of the greatest dangers communities and individuals acquire the greatest glory.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book I, 1.144-[3]
Variant translation: We must realize, too, that, both for cities and for individuals, it is from the greatest dangers that the greatest glory is to be won.
As translated by Rex Warner (1954).
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

“It is a common mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong end, to act first, and wait for disaster to discuss the matter.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book I, 1.78-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

“But what most oppressed them was that they had two wars at once, and has thus reached a pitch of frenzy which no one would have believed possible if he had heard of it before it had come to pass.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book VII, 7.28-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book VII

“By day certainly the combatants have a clearer notion, though even then by no means of all that takes place, no one knowing much of anything that does not does not go on in his own immediate neighborhood; but in a night engagement ( and this was the only one that occurred between great armies during the war) how could anyone know anything for certain?”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book VII, 7.44-[1]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book VII

“To come to this war: despite the known disposition of the actors in a struggle to overrate its importance, and when it is over to return to their admiration of earlier events, yet an examination of the facts will show that it was much greater than the wars which preceded it.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Variant translation: "People always think the greatest war is the one they are fighting at the moment, and when that is over they are more impressed with wars of antiquity; but, even so, this war will prove, to all who look at the facts, that it was greater than the others." Translation by Paul Woodruff.
Book I, 21-[2]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

Thucydides Quotes about men

“Men do not rest content with parrying the attacks of a superior, but often strike the first blow to prevent the attack being made.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book VI, 6.18-[2]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book VI

“Of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a necessary law of their nature they rule wherever they can.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book V, 5.105-[2]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book V

“We must march against the enemy, and teach him that he must go and get what he wants by attacking someone who will not resist him, but that men whose glory it is to be always ready to give battle for the liberty of their own country, and never unjustly to enslave that of others, will not let him go without a struggle.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book IV, 4.92-[7]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book IV

“When men are once checked in what they consider their special excellence, their whole opinion of themselves suffers more than if they had not at first believed in their superiority, the unexpected shock to their pride causing them to give way more than their real strength warrants; and that is probably now the case with the Athenians.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book VII, 7.66-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book VII

“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.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book III, 3.45-[1]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book III

“I could have wished that the reputations of many brave men were not to be imperilled in the mouth of a single individual, to stand or fall according as he spoke well or ill. For it is hard to speak properly upon a subject where it is even difficult to convince your hearers that you are speaking the truth.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book II, 2.35-[1]-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II
Context: I could have wished that the reputations of many brave men were not to be imperilled in the mouth of a single individual, to stand or fall according as he spoke well or ill. For it is hard to speak properly upon a subject where it is even difficult to convince your hearers that you are speaking the truth. On the one hand, the friend who is familiar with every fact of the story may think that some point has not been set forth with that fullness which he wishes and knows it to deserve; on the other, he who is a stranger to the matter may be led by envy to suspect exaggeration if he hears anything above his own nature. For men can endure to hear others praised only so long as they can severally persuade themselves of their own ability to equal the actions recounted: when this point is passed, envy comes in and with it incredulity.

Thucydides: Trending quotes

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

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book I, Chapter V
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

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

Thucydides

Men

“The real cause I consider to be the one which was formerly most kept out of sight. The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired the Lacedaemon, made war inevitable.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book I, 1.23-[6]. (See: Thucydides Trap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thucydides%20Trap)
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

War

Thucydides Quotes

“In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book II, 2.40-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II
Context: Again, in our enterprises we present the singular spectacle of daring and deliberation, each carried to its highest point, and both united in the same persons; although usually decision is the fruit of ignorance, hesitation of reflection. But the palm of courage will surely be adjudged most justly to those, who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger. In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours.

“Again, in our enterprises we present the singular spectacle of daring and deliberation, each carried to its highest point, and both united in the same persons; although usually decision is the fruit of ignorance, hesitation of reflection.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Decision , Personality

“Ignorance produces rashness, reflection timidity”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book II, 40.3
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II

“I have often before now been convinced that a democracy is incapable of empire…”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book III, 3.37-[1] (Speech of Cleon..).
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book III

Democracy

“You can now, if you choose, employ your present success to advantage, so as to keep what you have got and gain honour and reputation besides, and you can avoid the mistake of those who meet with an extraordinary piece of good fortune, and are led on by hope to grasp continually at something further, through having already succeeded without expecting it.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book IV, 4.17-[4]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book IV

Hope , Success

“The fate of those of their neighbours who had already rebelled and had been subdued was no lesson to them; their own prosperity could not dissuade them from affronting danger; but blindly confident in the future, and full of hopes beyond their power though not beyond their ambition, they declared war and made their decision to prefer might to right, their attack being determined not by provocation but by the moment which seemed propitious. The truth is that great good fortune coming suddenly and unexpectedly tends to make a people insolent; in most cases it is safer for mankind to have success in reason than out of reason; and it is easier for them, one may say, to stave off adversity than to preserve prosperity.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book III, 3.39-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book III

Fate , War , People , Truth

“Right or community of blood was not the bond of union between them, so much as interest or compulsion as the case may be.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book VII, 7.57-[1]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book VII

Communication

“here we bless your simplicity but do not envy your folly.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book V, 5.105-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book V

Envy

“On the whole, however, the conclusions I have drawn from the proofs quoted may, I believe, safely be relied on. Assuredly they will not be disturbed either by the lays of a poet displaying the exaggeration of his craft, or by the compositions of the chroniclers that are attractive at truth's expense; the subjects they treat of being out of the reach of evidence, and time having robbed most of them of historical value by enthroning them in the region of legend.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book I, 21-[1]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

Truth , Quotes , Time

“We hope that you, instead of thinking to influence us by saying that you did not join the Lacedaemonians, although their colonists, or that you have done us no wrong, will aim at what is feasible, holding in view the real sentiments of us both; since you know as well as we do that 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.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

A summary of Athenian statements to the Melians, Book V, 5.89-[1]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book V

World , Hope , Question , Thinking

“I think, therefore, that we ought to take great numbers of hoplites, both from Athens and from our allies, and not merely from our subjects, but also any we may be able to get for love or money in the Peloponnesus, and great numbers also of archers and slingers, to oppose the Sicilian horse.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book VI, 6.22-[1]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book VI

Love , Money , Thinking , Horse

“Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, beginning at the moment that it broke out, and believing that it would be a great war, and more worthy of relation than any that had proceeded it.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book I, 1.1-[1] (opening lines...)
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

War , History

“their swaying bodies reflected the agitation of their minds, and they suffered the worst agony of all, ever just within the reach of safety or just on the point of destruction.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book VII, 7.71-[3] (See also: Fog of war..).
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book VII

Suffering

“The Spartans meanwhile, man to man, and with their war songs in the ranks, exhorted each brave comrade to remember what he had learned before; well aware that the long training of action was of more use for saving lives than any brief verbal exhortation, though ever so well delivered.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book V, 5.69-[2]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book V

War , Learning , Training

“we must make up our minds to look for our protection not to legal terrors but to careful administration.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book III, 3.46-[4]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book III

“concessions to adversaries only end in self reproach, and the more strictly they are avoided the greater will be the chance of security.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book I, 1.34-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

Chance

“the freaks of chance are not determinable by calculation.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book I, 1.84-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

Chance

“But as the power of Hellas grew, and the acquisition of wealth became more an objective, the revenues of the states increasing, tyrannies were established almost everywhere…”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book I, 1.13-[1] (See also: Karl Marx, Grundrisse, Introduction p. 7)
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

Wealth

“We must not disguise from ourselves that we go to found a city among strangers and enemies, and he who undertakes such an enterprise should be prepared to become master of the country the first day he lands, or failing in this find everything hostile to him.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book VI, 6.23-[2]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book VI

Hostility , Country

“The dead lay unburied, and each man as he recognized a friend among them shuddered with grief and horror; while the living whom they were leaving behind, wounded or sick, were to the living far more shocking than the dead, and more to be pitied than those who had perished.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book VII, 7.75-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book VII

Dead

“Abstinence from all injustice to other first-rate powers is a greater tower of strength than anything that can be gained by the sacrifice of permanent tranquillity for an apparent temporary advantage.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book I, 1.42-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

“The wide difference between the two characters, the slowness and want of energy of the Spartans as contrasted with the dash and enterprise of their opponents, proved of the greatest service, especially to a maritime empire like Athens. Indeed this was shown by the Syracusans, who were most like the Athenians in character, and also most successful in combating them.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book VIII, 8.96-[5]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book VIII

Success

“Hatred also is short lived; but that which makes the splendor of the present and the glory of the future remains forever unforgotten”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book II, 2.64-[5]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II

Future

“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.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book V, 5.111-[4]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book V

“Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them. Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question, inaptness to act on any. Frantic violence became the attribute of manliness; cautious plotting, a justifiable means of self-defence. The advocate of extreme measures was always trustworthy; his opponent a man to be suspected. To succeed in a plot was to have a shrewd head, to divine a plot a still shrewder; but to try to provide against having to do either was to break up your party and to be afraid of your adversaries.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book III, 3.82-[4]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book III

Courage , Question , Change

“Now the only sure basis of an alliance is for each party to be equally afraid of the other;”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book III, 3.11-[2]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book III

“They stood where they stood by the power of the sword.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book IV, 4.98-[7]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book IV

“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.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book I, 1.8-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

Love

“And the rarest dangers are those in which failure brings little loss and success the greatest advantage.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book VII, 7.68-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book VII

Failure , Loss , Success

“Hope, danger's comforter”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book V, 5.103-[1]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book V

Hope

“The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Sparta, made war inevitable.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book I, 1.23-[6].
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

War

“Fire signals of an attack were also raised toward Thebes, but the Plataeans in the city at once displayed a number of others, prepared beforehand for this very purpose, in order to render the enemy's signals unintelligible, and to prevent his friends from getting a true idea of what was happening and coming to his aid before their comrades who had gone out should have made good their escape and be in safety.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book III, 3.22-[7]-[8] (See also: Spoofing attack..).
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book III

Idea

“self-control contains honour as a chief constituent, and honour bravery.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book I, 1.84; "self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and respect of self, in turn, is the chief element in courage" ( trans. Charles Forster Smith https://archive.org/stream/thucydideswithen01thucuoft/thucydideswithen01thucuoft#page/142/mode/2up)
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

“he who voluntarily confronts tremendous odds must have very great internal resources to draw upon.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book II, 2.89-[6].
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II

Drawing

“They have discovered that the length of time we have now been in commission has rotted our ships and wasted our crews, and that with the completeness of our crews and the soundness of the pristine efficiency of our navy has departed. For it is impossible for us to haul our ships ashore and dry them out because the enemy's vessels being as many or more than our own, we are constantly anticipating an attack.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book VII, 7.12-[3]-[4]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book VII

Time

“Disdain is the privilege of those who, like us, have been assured by reflection of their superiority to their adversary. And where the chances are the same, knowledge fortifies courage by the contempt which is its consequence, its trust being placed, not in hope, which is the prop of the desperate, but in a judgment grounded upon existing resources, whose anticipations are more to be depended upon.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book II, 2.62-[4]-[5]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II

Hope , Courage , Knowledge , Chance

“In practice we always base our preparations against an enemy on the assumption that his plans are good; indeed, it is right to rest our hopes not on a belief in his blunders, but on the soundness of our provisions. Nor ought we to believe that there is much difference between man and man, but to think that the superiority lies with him who is reared in the severest school.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Variant translation: "Instead, we think the plans of our neighbors are as good as our own, and we can't work out whose chances at war are better in a speech. So we always make our preparations in action, on the assumption that our enemies know what they are doing. We should not build our hopes on the belief that they will make mistakes, but on our own careful foresight. And we should not think there is much difference between one man and another, except that the winner will be the one whose education was the most severe." Translation by Paul Woodruff.
Variant translation: "There is no need to suppose that human beings differ very much from one another: but it is true that the ones who come out on top are the ones who have been trained in the hardest school." Note: Some versions omit the "who have been".
Book I, 1.84-[4]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

School , Hope , Thinking

“For the true author of the subjugation of a people is not so much the immediate agent, as the power which permits it having the means to prevent it.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book I, 69.
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

People

“Let him remember that many before now have tried to chastise a wrongdoer, and failing to punish their enemy have not even saved themselves; while many who have trusted in force to gain an advantage, instead of gaining anything more, have been doomed to lose what they had. Vengeance is not necessarily successful because wrong has been done, or strength sure because it is confident; but the incalculable element in the future exercises the widest influence, and is the most treacherous, and yet in fact the most useful of all things, as it frightens us all equally, and thus makes us consider before attacking each other.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book IV, 4.62-[3]-[4]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book IV

Exercises , Confidence , Success , Future

“The secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom is courage.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book II, 2.43
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II

Courageous , Happy , Secret , Courage

“In fine, 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.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book I, 1.22-[4]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

Time

“That war is an evil is a proposition so familiar to every one that it would be tedious to develop it. No one is forced to engage in it by ignorance, or kept out of it by fear, if he fancies there is anything to be gained by it.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book IV, 4.59-[2]; "Nobody is driven into war by ignorance, and no one who thinks that he will gain anything from it is deterred by fear." ( trans. http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/thucydides/thucydides-passages.php?pleaseget=4.59-64 Benjamin Jowett)
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book IV

War , Fear , Evil

“If you give way, you will instantly have to meet some greater demand, as having been frightened into obedience in the first instance; while a firm refusal will make them clearly understand that they must treat you more as equals.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book I, 1.140-[5]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I

Way , Understanding

“In a democracy... someone who fails to get elected to office can always console himself with the thought that there was something not quite fair about it.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book VIII, 8.89
As quoted in A Historical Commentary on Thucydides: A Companion to Rex Warner’s Penguin Translation, David Cartwright/Rex Warner, University of Michigan Press (1997), p. 298 : ISBN 0472084194
In the Richard Crawley translation, this quote is rendered as follows : [U]nder a democracy a disappointed candidate accepts his defeat more easily, because he has not the humiliation of being beaten by his equals.
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book VIII

Democracy

“the Thracian people, like the bloodiest of the barbarians, being ever most murderous when it has nothing to fear.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book VII, 7.29-[4]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book VII

People , Fear

“The country on the sea coast, now called Macedonia, was first acquired by Alexander, the father of Perdiccas, and his ancestors, originally Temenids from Argos…The whole is now called Macedonia, and at the time of the invasion of Sitalces, Perdiccas, Alexander's son, was the reigning king.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book II, 99,-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II

Time , Sea , Country

“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”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book III, 3.10-[2]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book III