Thucydides Quotes

1. “The secret to happiness is freedom… And the secret to freedom is courage.”

2. “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.”

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

4. “Ignorance is bold and knowledge reserved.”

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

6. “History is Philosophy teaching by example.”

7. “Justice will not come to Athens until those who are not injured are as indignant as those who are injured.”

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

9. “Few things are brought to a successful issue by impetuous desire, but most by calm and prudent forethought.”

10. “Wars spring from unseen and generally insignificant causes, the first outbreak being often but an explosion of anger.”

11. “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.”

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

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

14. “Men naturally despise those who court them, but respect those who do not give way to them.”

15. “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.”