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As for democracy, the men of sense among us knew what it was, and I perhaps as well as any, as I have more cause to complain of it but there is nothing new to be said of a patent absurdity-meanwhile we did not think it safe to alter it under the pressure of your hostility.

Thucydides

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Thucydides
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More quotes by Thucydides

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Mankind are tolerant of the praises of others as long as each hearer thinks that he can do as well or nearly as well himself, but, when the speaker rises above him, jealousy is aroused and he begins to be incredulous.
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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.
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Remember that this greatness was won by men with courage, with knowledge of their duty, and with a sense of honor in action.
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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.
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Stories happen to those who tell them.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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...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
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Indeed men too often take upon themselves in the prosecution of their revenge to set the example of doing away with those general laws to which all can look for salvation in adversity, instead of allowing them to subsist against the day of danger when their aid may be required
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Three of the gravest failings, want of sense, of courage, or of vigilance.
Thucydides
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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
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It is from the greatest dangers that the greatest glory is to be won.
Thucydides
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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
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The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Sparta, made war inevitable.
Thucydides
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Full of hopes beyond their power though not beyond their ambition.
Thucydides
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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
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Now the only sure basis of an alliance is for each party to be equally afraid of the other
Thucydides
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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