The 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, 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.

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

It is a common mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong end, to act first, and wait for disasters to discuss the matter.

Remember that this greatness was won by men with courage, with knowledge of their duty, and with a sense of honor in action.

You shouldn't feel sorry for the lifestyle you haven't tasted, but for the one you are about to lose

Wars spring from unseen and generally insignificant causes, the first outbreak being often but an explosion of anger.