I could have wished that the reputations of many brave men were not to be imperilled in the mouth of a single individual, to stand or fall according as he spoke well or ill. For it is hard to speak properly upon a subject where it is even difficult to convince your hearers that you are speaking the truth.

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.

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

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

For they had learned that true safety was to be found in long previous training, and not in eloquent exhortations uttered when they were going into action.

Hope is an expensive commodity. It makes better sense to be prepared.

In a democracy, someone who fails to get elected to office can always console himself with the thought that there was something not quite fair about it.