Thucydides
Thucydides
Thucydideswas an Athenian historian and general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history" because of his strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work...
NationalityGreek
ProfessionHistorian
people stories firsts
Most people, in fact, will not take the trouble in finding out the truth, but are much more inclined to accept the first story they hear.
sacrifice towers firsts
Abstinence from all injustice to other first-rate powers is a greater tower of strength than anything that can be gained by the sacrifice of permanent tranquillity for an apparent temporary advantage.
men blow firsts
Men do not rest content with parrying the attacks of a superior, but often strike the first blow to prevent the attack being made.
men looks firsts
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.
best man
We should remember that one man is much the same as another, and that he is best who is trained in the severest school.
despise men naturally respect
Men naturally despise those who court them, but respect those who do not give way to them.
injured until
Justice will not come to Athens until those who are not injured are as indignant as those who are injured.
cheated compelled excited legal looks men second violent wrong
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.
freedom happiness secret
The secret to happiness is freedom... And the secret to freedom is courage.
i-miss-you missing-you long-distance-relationship
As contraries are known by contraries, so is the delight of presence best known by the torments of absence.
danger interest involved
When tremendous dangers are involved, no one can be blamed for looking to his own interest.
people barbarians
the Thracian people, like the bloodiest of the barbarians, being ever most murderous when it has nothing to fear.
war mean army
By day certainly the combatants have a clearer notion, though even then by no means of all that takes place, no one knowing much of anything that does not does not go on in his own immediate neighborhood; but in a night engagement ( and this was the only one that occurred between great armies during the war) how could anyone know anything for certain?
winning moments applause
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