Great Throughts Treasury

"In fine, 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."

"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."

"In practice we always base our preparations against an enemy on the assumption that his plans are good; indeed, it is right to rest our hopes not on a belief in his blunders, but on the soundness of our provisions. Nor ought we to believe that there is much difference between man and man, but to think that the superiority lies with him who is reared in the severest school."

"It is obvious that both man and gods, wherever it has the power and exercise a pulse invincible nature. and I, like everyone else, you act just like us, if you have a power equal to ours."

"It is a common mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong end, to act first, and wait for disasters to discuss the matter."

"It is useless to attack a man who could not be controlled even if conquered, while failure would leave us in an even worse position."

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

"It must be thoroughly understood that war is a necessity, and that the more readily we accept it,the less will be the ardor of our opponents, and that out of the greatest dangers communities and individuals acquire the greatest glory."

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

"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."

"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’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."

"Let him remember that many before now have tried to chastise a wrongdoer, and failing to punish their enemy have not even saved themselves; while many who have trusted in force to gain an advantage, instead of gaining anything more, have been doomed to lose what they had. Vengeance is not necessarily successful because wrong has been done, or strength sure because it is confident; but the incalculable element in the future exercises the widest influence, and is the most treacherous, and yet in fact the most useful of all things, as it frightens us all equally, and thus makes us consider before attacking each other."

"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."

"My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the needs of an immediate public, but was done to last forever."

"Now the only sure basis of an alliance is for each party to be equally afraid of the other."

"Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men most."

"Our constitution is named a democracy, because it is in the hands not of the few but of the many. But our laws secure equal justice for all in their private disputes, and our public opinion welcomes and honors talent in every branch of achievement, not for any sectional reason but on grounds of excellence alone. And as we give free play to all in our public life, so we carry the same spirit into our daily relations with one another. . . . Open and friendly in our private intercourse, in our public acts we keep strictly within the control of law. We acknowledge the restraint of reverence; we are obedient to whomsoever is set in authority, and to the laws, more sepecially to those which offer protection to the oppressed and those unwritten ordinances whose transgression brings admitted shame."

"Our form of government does not enter into rivalry with the institutions of others. We do not copy our neighbors, but are an example to them. It is true that we are called a democracy, for the administration is in the hands of the many and not of the few. But while the law secures equal justice to all alike in their private disputes, the claim of excellence is also recognized; and when a citizen is in any way distinguished, he is preferred to the public service, not as a matter of privilege, but as the reward of merit. Neither is poverty a bar, but a man may benefit his country whatever be the obscurity of his condition."

"Of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a necessary law of their nature they rule wherever they can."

"On the whole, however, the conclusions I have drawn from the proofs quoted may, I believe, safely be relied on. Assuredly they will not be disturbed either by the lays of a poet displaying the exaggeration of his craft, or by the compositions of the chroniclers that are attractive at truth's expense; the subjects they treat of being out of the reach of evidence, and time having robbed most of them of historical value by enthroning them in the region of legend."

"Peace is an armistice in a war that is continuously going on."

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

"Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and self-respect is the chief element in courage."

"Some legislators only wish to vengeance against a particular enemy. Others only look out for themselves. They devote very little time on the consideration of any public issue. They think that no harm will come from their neglect. They act as if it is always the business of somebody else to look after this or that. When this selfish notion is entertained by all, the commonwealth slowly begins to decay."

"Still 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."

"So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand."

"Speculation is carried on in safety, but, when it comes to action, fear causes failure."

"The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest, but if it is judged worthy by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the understanding of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it, I shall be content."

"That war is an evil is a proposition so familiar to everyone that it would be tedious to develop it."

"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."

"The fact is that one side thinks that the profits to be won outweigh the risks to be incurred, and the other side would rather avoid danger than accept an immediate loss."

"The dead lay unburied, and each man as he recognized a friend among them shuddered with grief and horror; while the living whom they were leaving behind, wounded or sick, were to the living far more shocking than the dead, and more to be pitied than those who had perished."

"The fate of those of their neighbors who had already rebelled and had been subdued was no lesson to them; their own prosperity could not dissuade them from affronting danger; but blindly confident in the future, and full of hopes beyond their power though not beyond their ambition, they declared war and made their decision to prefer might to right, their attack being determined not by provocation but by the moment which seemed propitious. The truth is that great good fortune coming suddenly and unexpectedly tends to make a people insolent; in most cases it is safer for mankind to have success in reason than out of reason; and it is easier for them, one may say, to stave off adversity than to preserve prosperity."

"The freaks of chance are not determinable by calculation."

"The great wish of some is to avenge themselves on some particular enemy, the great wish of others to save their own pocket. Slow in assembling, they devote a very small fraction of the time to the consideration of any public object, most of it to the prosecution of their own objects. Meanwhile each fancies that no harm will come of his neglect, that it is the business of somebody else to look after this or that for him; and so, by the same notion being entertained by all separately, the common cause imperceptibly decays."

"The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Sparta, made war inevitable."

"The ones who come out on top are the ones who have been trained in the hardest school."

"The peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learnt to cultivate the olive and the wine."

"The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."

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

"The secret of Happiness is Freedom, and the secret of Freedom, Courage."

"The strength of an Army lies in strict discipline and undeviating obedience to its officers."

"The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."

"The Spartans meanwhile, man to man, and with their war songs in the ranks, exhorted each brave comrade to remember what he had learned before; well aware that the long training of action was of more use for saving lives than any brief verbal exhortation, though ever so well delivered."

"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"

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

"The sufferings that fate inflicts on us should be borne with patience, what enemies inflict with manly courage."

"The whole earth is the sepulchre of famous men."

"The Thracian people, like the bloodiest of the barbarians, being ever most murderous when it has nothing to fear."