Neither in the life of the individual nor in that of mankind is it desirable to know the future.

To each eye, perhaps, the outlines of a great civilization present a different picture. In the wide ocean upon which we venture, the possible ways and directions are many; and the same studies which have served for my work might easily, in other hands, not only receive a wholly different treatment and application, but lead to essentially different conclusions.

Only a fairy tale calls a constant condition 'happiness'.

The whole life of Demosthenes... leaves the impression of a melancholy state of things, and of the brazen insolence of wickedness. A particularly striking idea of how things really were in Greece can be obtained from one feature of life - the sons who turned out badly.... the sons of gifted but arrogant fathers turned out merely arrogant, the grandsons hopeless; it is respect alone that sustains families and gives them traditions.

The essence of tyranny is the denial of complexity.

There might be a fact of the greatest significance reported by Thucydides which will only be recognized as such a hundred years from now.

Power is of its nature evil, whoever wields it.