Three of the gravest failings, want of sense, of courage, or of vigilance.

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

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

It is a general rule of human nature that people despise those who treat them well, and look up to those who make no concessions.

People get into the habit of entrusting the things they desire to wishful thinking, and subjecting things they don't desire to exhaustive thinking

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

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.