Thucydides Quotes

But what most oppressed them was that they had two wars at once, and has thus reached a pitch of frenzy which no one would have believed possible if he had heard of it before it had come to pass.

As to the speeches which were made either before or during the war, it was hard for me, and for others who reported them to me, to recollect the exact words.I have therefore put into the mouth of each speaker the sentiments proper to the occasion, expressed as I thought he would be likely to express them, while at the same time I endeavoured, as nearly as I could, to give the general purport of what was actually said.

(Book 1 Chapter 22.1)

Love of power, operating through greed and through personal ambition, was the cause of all these evils. To this must be added the violent fanaticism which came into play once the struggle had broken out. Leaders of parties in the cities had programmes which appeared admirable – on one side political equality for the masses, on the other the safe and sound government of the aristocracy – but in professing to serve the public interest they were seeking to win the prizes for themselves. In their struggles for ascendancy nothing was barred; terrible indeed were the actions to which they committed themselves, and in taking revenge they went farther still. Here they were deterred neither by the claims of justice nor by the interests of the state; their one standard was the pleasure of their own party at that particular moment, and so, either by means of condemning their enemies on an illegal vote or by violently usurping power over them, they were always ready to satisfy the hatreds of the hour. Thus neither side had any use for conscientious motives; more interest was shown in those who could produce attractive arguments to justify some disgraceful action. As for the citizens who held moderate views, they were destroyed by both the extreme parties, either for not taking part in the struggle or in envy at the possibility that they might survive.

[S]till hope leads men to venture; and no one ever yet put himself in peril without the inward conviction that he would succeed in his design.

(Peloponnesian Generals:) The skill (ἐπιστήμη) of your enemies which you so greatly dread, if united with courage (ἀνδρείαν), may be able in the moment of danger to remember and execute the lesson which it has learned, but without courage (εὐψυχίας) no skill (τέχνη) can do anything at such a time.

τῶνδε δὲ ἡ ἐπιστήμη, ἣν μάλιστα φοβεῖσθε, ἀνδρείαν μὲν ἔχουσα καὶ μνήμην ἕξει ἐν τῷ δεινῷ ἐπιτελεῖν ἃ ἔμαθεν, ἄνευ δὲ εὐψυχίας οὐδεμία τέχνη πρὸς τοὺς κινδύνους ἰσχύει.

For fear makes men forget, and skill which cannot fight (ἀλκῆς) is useless.

φόβος γὰρ μνήμην ἐκπλήσσει, τέχνη δὲ ἄνευ ἀλκῆς οὐδὲν ὠφελεῖ.

(Book 2 Chapter 87.4)

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?

The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.

The preparations of both the combatants were in every department in the last state of perfection;

Right or community of blood was not the bond of union between them, so much as interest or compulsion as the case may be.

Goodwill shown by the party that is asking for help does not mean security for the prospective ally. What is looked for is a positive preponderance of power in action.

when people are entering upon a war they do things the wrong way round. Action comes first, and it is only when they have already suffered that they begin to think.

..since you know as well as we do that 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.

and their judgment was based more upon blind wishing than upon any sound prediction; for it is a habit of mankind to entrust to careless hope what they long for, and to use sovereign reason to thrust aside what they do not desire.

It is the habit of mankind to entrust to careless hope what they long for, and to use sovereign reason to thrust aside what they do not desire

Those who do wrong to a neighbor when there is no reason to do so are the ones who persevere to the point of destroying him since they see the danger involved in allowing their enemy to survive.