Indeed men too often take upon themselves in the prosecution of their revenge to set the example of doing away with those general laws to which all can look for salvation in adversity, instead of allowing them to subsist against the day of danger when their aid may be required
ThucydidesAnd it is certain that those who do not yield to their equals, who keep terms with their superiors, and are moderate towards their inferiors, on the whole succeed best.
ThucydidesI am not blaming those who are resolved to rule, only those who show an even greater readiness to submit.
ThucydidesIt is useless to attack men who could not be controlled even if conquered, while failure would leave us in an even worse position.
ThucydidesThe Peloponnesian War turns out to be no dry chronicle of abstract cause and effect. No, it is above all an intense, riveting, and timeless story of strong and weak men, of heroes and scoundrels and innocents too, all caught in the fateful circumstances of rebellion, plague, and war that always strip away the veneer of culture and show us for what we really are.
Thucydides