Don't confuse meaning with truth.

The cause of all these evils was the lust for power arising from greed and ambition; and from these passions proceeded the violence of parties once engaged in contention.

We Greeks believe that a man who takes no part in public affairs is not merely lazy, but good for nothing

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.

Human nature is the one constant through human history. It is always there.

Men do not rest content with parrying the attacks of a superior, but often strike the first blow to prevent the attack being made.

If you give way, you will instantly have to meet some greater demand, as having been frightened into obedience in the first instance; while a firm refusal will make them clearly understand that they must treat you more as equals.