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It is men who make a city, not walls or ships.
Thucydides
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Thucydides
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More quotes by Thucydides
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
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
Hatred also is short lived but that which makes the splendor of the present and the glory of the future remains forever unforgotten here we bless your simplicity but do not envy your folly.
Thucydides
...knowing the secret of happiness to be freedom, and the secret of freedom a brave heart, not idly to stand aside from the enemy's onset.
Thucydides
They are surely to be esteemed the bravest spirits who, having the clearest sense of both the pains and pleasures of life, do not on that account shrink from danger.
Thucydides
The whole earth is the sepulchre of famous men.
Thucydides
In peace and prosperity states and individuals have better sentiments, because they do not find themselves suddenly confronted with imperious necessities but war takes away the easy supply of daily wants and so proves a rough master that brings most men's characters to a level with their fortunes
Thucydides
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
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
The superior gratification derived from the use and contemplation of costly and supposedly beautiful products is, commonly, in great measure a gratification of our sense of costliness masquerading under the name of beauty.
Thucydides
But the prize for courage will surely be awarded most justly to those who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger.
Thucydides
When will there be justice in Athens? There will be justice in Athens when those who are not injured are as outraged as those who are.
Thucydides
Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men most.
Thucydides
... Athenians are addicted to innovation. They are daring beyond their judgment they toil on with little opportunity for enjoying, being ever engaged in getting, they were born into the world to take no rest themselves, and to give none to others.
Thucydides
For we both alike know that into the discussion of human affairs the question of justice enters only where the pressure of necessity is equal, and that the powerful exact what they can, and the weak grant what they must.
Thucydides
Those who have experienced good and bad luck many times have every reason to be skeptical of successes
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
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
The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Sparta, made war inevitable.
Thucydides
It is useless to attack men who could not be controlled even if conquered, while failure would leave us in an even worse position.
Thucydides
