Thucydides
History is Philosophy teaching by example.Collection: History
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.Collection: War
It is frequently a misfortune to have very brilliant men in charge of affairs. They expect too much of ordinary men.Collection: Men
Ignorance is bold and knowledge reserved.Collection: Intelligence
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.Collection: Legal
Men naturally despise those who court them, but respect those who do not give way to them.Collection: Respect
We should remember that one man is much the same as another, and that he is best who is trained in the severest school.Collection: Best
The secret to happiness is freedom... And the secret to freedom is courage.Collection: Courage
Wars spring from unseen and generally insignificant causes, the first outbreak being often but an explosion of anger.Collection: Anger
The strong do what they have to do and the weak accept what they have to accept.Collection: Strength
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.Collection: People
The secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom is courage.Collection: Secret
War is an evil thing; but to submit to the dictation of other states is worse.... Freedom, if we hold fast to it, will ultimately restore our losses, but submission will mean permanent loss of all that we value.... To you who call yourselves men of peace, I say: You are not safe unless you have men of action on your side.Collection: War
Love of power, operating through greed and through personal ambition, was the cause of all these evils.Collection: Peace
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.Collection: Inspirational
Knowledge without understanding is useless.Collection: Understanding
Hope is an expensive commodity. It makes better sense to be prepared.Collection: Commodity
It is a general rule of human nature that people despise those who treat them well, and look up to those who make no concessions.Collection: People
When one is deprived of ones liberty, one is right in blaming not so much the man who puts the shackles on as the one who had the power to prevent him, but did not use it.Collection: Men
We must remember that one man is much the same as another, and that he is best who is trained in the severest school.Collection: Military
Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and respect of self, in turn, is the chief element in courage.Collection: Self Esteem
When a man finds a conclusion agreeable, he accepts it without argument, but when he finds it disagreeable, he will bring against it all the forces of logic and reason.Collection: Science
Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men most.Collection: Patience
Human nature is the one constant through human history. It is always there.Collection: Human Nature
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.Collection: Selfish
When tremendous dangers are involved, no one can be blamed for looking to his own interest.Collection: Danger
I am not blaming those who are resolved to rule, only those who show an even greater readiness to submit.Collection: Peace
Athens' biggest worry was the sheer recklessness of its own democratic government. A simple majority of the citizenry, urged on and incensed by clever demagogues, might capriciously send out military forces in unnecessary and exhausting adventures.Collection: Clever
Remember that this greatness was won by men with courage, with knowledge of their duty, and with a sense of honor in action.Collection: Greatness
Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.Collection: Being Free
So little trouble do men take in the search after truth; so readily do they accept whatever comes first to hand.Collection: Truth
He who graduates the harshest school, succeeds.Collection: School
In a word I claim that our city as a whole is an education to Greece.Collection: Education
In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours.Collection: Generosity
There is, however, no advantage in reflections on the past further than may be of service to the present. For the future we must provide by maintaining what the present gives us and redoubling our efforts; it is hereditary to us to win virtue as the fruit of labour, and you must not change the habit, even though you should have a slight advantage in wealth and resources; for it is not right that what was won in want should be lost in plenty.Collection: Reflection
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.Collection: Believe
For men can endure to hear others praised only so long as they can severally persuade themselves of their own ability to equal the actions recounted: when this point is passed, envy comes in and with it incredulity.Collection: Men
Wealth to us is not mere material for vainglory but an opportunity for achievement; and poverty we think it no disgrace to acknowledge but a real degredation to make no effort to overcome.Collection: Real
Those who really deserve praise are the people who, while human enough to enjoy power, nevertheless pay more attention to justice than they are compelled to do by their situation.Collection: People
The Thracian people, like the bloodiest of the barbarians, being ever most murderous when it has nothing to fear.Collection: People
I have written my work, not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all timeCollection: Winning
...knowing the secret of happiness to be freedom, and the secret of freedom a brave heart, not idly to stand aside from the enemy's onset.Collection: Heart
we know that there can never be any solid friendship between individuals, or union between communities that is worth the name, unless the parties be persuaded of each others honestyCollection: Honesty
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.Collection: Beautiful
As for democracy, the men of sense among us knew what it was, and I perhaps as well as any, as I have more cause to complain of it; but there is nothing new to be said of a patent absurdity-meanwhile we did not think it safe to alter it under the pressure of your hostility.Collection: Men
But the prize for courage will surely be awarded most justly to those who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger.Collection: Differences
Full of hopes beyond their power though not beyond their ambition.Collection: Ambition
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?Collection: War
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.Collection: Men
Boasting and bravado may exist in the breast even of the coward, if he is successful through a mere lucky hit; but a just contempt of an enemy can alone arise in those who feel that they are superior to their opponent by the prudence of their measures.Collection: Successful