Quotes from History of the Peloponnesian War

Quotations follow the Robert B. Strassler (editor), Richard Crawley (translator) translation (Free Press, 1996) — our recommended edition.

1. 2

   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.

2. 3

   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.

3. 4

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

4. 5

   In short, I say that as a city we are the school of Hellas.

5. 6

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

6. 7

   Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them. Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness.

7. 8

   Its administration favours the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy.

8. 9

   Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, beginning at the moment that it broke out, and believing that it would be a great war and more worthy of relation than any that had preceded it.

9. 10

   For heroes have the whole earth for their tomb; and in lands far from their own, where the column with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined in every breast a record unwritten with no tablet to preserve it, except that of the heart.

10. 11

    War takes away the easy supply of daily wants, and so proves a rough master, that brings most men's characters to a level with their fortunes.

11. 12

    We cultivate refinement without extravagance and knowledge without effeminacy; wealth we employ more for use than for show, and place the real disgrace of poverty not in owning to the fact but in declining the struggle against it.

12. 13

    And they are surely to be esteemed the bravest spirits who, having the clearest sense both of the pains and pleasures of life, do not on that account shrink from danger.

13. 14

    We throw open our city to the world, and never by alien acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity of learning or observing, although the eyes of an enemy may occasionally profit by our liberality.

14. 15

    Judging happiness to be the fruit of freedom and freedom of valour, never decline the dangers of war.

15. 16

    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.

16. 17

    Men now coolly ventured on what they had formerly done in a corner, and not just as they pleased.