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
despise men naturally respect
Men naturally despise those who court them, but respect those who do not give way to them.
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.
revenge adversity men
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
taken men winning
In general, the men of lower intelligence won out. Afraid of their own shortcomings and of the intelligence of their opponents, so that they would not lose out in reasoned argument or be taken by surprise by their quick-witted opponents, they boldly moved into action. Their enemies,on the contrary, contemptuous and confident in their ability to anticipate, thought there was no need to take by action what they could win by their brains.
believe men law
Of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a necessary law of their nature they rule wherever they can.
war men useless
It is useless to attack men who could not be controlled even if conquered, while failure would leave us in an even worse position...
patience men politics
Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men most.
men honor age
One's sense of honor is the only thing that does not grow old, and the last pleasure, when one is worn out with age, is not, as the poet said, making money, but having the respect of one's fellow men.
religious men giving
For men naturally despise those who court them, but respect those who do not give way to them.
fate men envy
To be an object of hatred and aversion to their contemporaries has been the usual fate of all those whose merit has raised them above the common level. The man who submits to the shafts of envy for the sake of noble objects pursues a judicious course for his own lasting fame. Hatred dies with its object, while merit soon breaks forth in full splendor, and his glory is handed down to posterity in never-dying strains.
men people greek
It is frequently a misfortune to have very brilliant men in charge of affairs. They expect too much of ordinary men.
men earth woven
The whole earth is the sepulchre of famous men.
men effort poverty
An avowal of poverty is no disgrace to any man; to make no effort to escape it is indeed disgraceful.
men hands community
They whose minds are least sensitive to calamity, and whose hands are most quick to meet it, are the greatest men and the greatest communities.