Quote

Indeed it is generally the case that men are readier to call rogues clever than simpletons honest, and are ashamed of being the second as they are proud of being the first.

Thucydides

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Thucydides
Historian
Cases
Rogues
Honest
Ashamed
Call
Clever
Firsts
Generally
First
Indeed
Men
Case
Second
Readier
Proud
Simpletons

More quotes by Thucydides

Image
Full of hopes beyond their power though not beyond their ambition.
Thucydides
Image
Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men most.
Thucydides
Image
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
Image
Knowledge without understanding is useless.
Thucydides
Image
Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and respect of self, in turn, is the chief element in courage.
Thucydides
Image
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
Image
...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
Image
Wealth to us is not mere material for vainglory but an opportunity for achievement and poverty we think it no disgrace to acknowledge but a real degredation to make no effort to overcome.
Thucydides
Image
when night came on, the Macedonians and the barbarian crowd suddenly took fright in one of those mysterious panics to which great armies are liable
Thucydides
Image
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
Image
Human nature is the one constant through human history. It is always there.
Thucydides
Image
Boasting and bravado may exist in the breast even of the coward, if he is successful through a mere lucky hit but a just contempt of an enemy can alone arise in those who feel that they are superior to their opponent by the prudence of their measures.
Thucydides
Image
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
Image
Amassing of wealth is an opportunity for good deeds, not hubris
Thucydides
Image
I think the two things most opposed to good counsel are haste and passion haste usaully goes hand in hand with folly, passion with coarseness and narrowness of mind.
Thucydides
Image
War is a matter not so much of arms as of money.
Thucydides
Image
Men's indignation, it seems, is more exited by legal wrong than by violent wrong the first looks like being cheated by an equal, the second like being compelled by a superior.
Thucydides
Image
Now the only sure basis of an alliance is for each party to be equally afraid of the other
Thucydides
Image
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
Image
The secret of freedom, courage.
Thucydides