We Greeks are lovers of the beautiful, yet simple in our tastes, and we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness.

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.

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

The peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learned to cultivate the olive and the vine.

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

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.

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.