Thucydides: Trending quotes

Thucydides trending quotes. Read the latest quotes in collection
Thucydides: 152 quotes88 likes

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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