“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

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 2, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Men do not rest content with parrying the attacks of a superior, but often strike the first blow to prevent the attack …" by Thucydides?
Thucydides photo
Thucydides 76
Greek historian and Athenian general

Related quotes

Sherrilyn Kenyon photo

“You're so afraid of being hurt that you attack first. Only those who really care about you will weather the assault of your verbal attacks and stay. The rest will fall away.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of the Night

Mao Zedong photo

“Without preparedness superiority is not real superiority and there can be no initiative either. Having grasped this point, a force which is inferior but prepared, can often defeat a superior enemy by surprise attack.”

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

On Protracted Warfare (1938)

Christopher Hitchens photo

“The best case scenario is a rapid attack by precision-guided weapons, striking Saddam's communications in the first hours and preventing his deranged orders from being obeyed. Then a massive landing will bring food, medicine and laptop computers to a surging crowd of thankful and relieved Iraqis and Kurds. This could, in theory, all happen.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

"What Happens Next to Iraq" http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/tm_objectid=12677144&method=full&siteid=94762-name_page.html, Daily Mirror (2003-02-26): On the 2003 invasion of Iraq
2000s, 2003

Anthony Trollope photo

“As will so often be the case when a men has a pen in his hand. It is like a club or sledge-hammer, — in using which, either for defence or attack, a man can hardly measure the strength of the blows he gives.”

Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) English novelist (1815-1882)

Source: An Autobiography (1883), Ch. 11

Democritus photo

“Coition is a slight attack of apoplexy. For man gushes forth from man, and is separated by being torn apart with a kind of blow.”

Democritus Ancient Greek philosopher, pupil of Leucippus, founder of the atomic theory

Freeman (1948), p. 150

Rutherford B. Hayes photo

“Unjust attacks on public men do them more good than unmerited praise. They are hurt less by undeserved censure than by undeserved commendation. Abuse helps; often praise hurts.”

Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893) American politician, 19th President of the United States (in office from 1877 to 1881)

Diary (14 July 1889)
Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922 - 1926)

Charles Krauthammer photo

“When under attack, no country is obligated to collect permission slips from allies to strike back.”

Charles Krauthammer (1950–2018) American journalist

"The Axis of Petulance" in The Washington Post (1 March 2002)
2000s, 2002

Rick Warren photo

“At first opposites attract. Then opposites attack.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader
Adolf Galland photo

“Never abandon the possibility of attack. Attack even from a position of inferiority, to disrupt the enemy's plans. This often results in improving one's own position.”

Adolf Galland (1912–1996) German World War II general and fighter pilot

Quoted in "The First and the Last," 1954.
The First and the Last (1954)

John Lancaster Spalding photo

“If our opinions rest upon solid ground, those who attack them do not make us angry, but themselves ridiculous.”

John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) Catholic bishop

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 215

Related topics