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

- 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

Ignorance is bold and knowledge reserved.

- Thucydides

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

- Thucydides

The secret to happiness is freedom... And the secret to freedom is courage.

- Thucydides

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

- Thucydides

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.

- Thucydides

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

- Thucydides

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.

- Thucydides

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

- Thucydides

History is Philosophy teaching by example.

- Thucydides

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

- Thucydides

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

- Thucydides

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

- Thucydides

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

- Thucydides