In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours.

And where the rewards for merit are greatest, there are found the best citizens.

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.

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.

One's sense of honor is the only thing that does not grow old, and the last pleasure, when one is worn out with age, is not, as the poet said, making money, but having the respect of one's fellow men.

In peace and prosperity states and individuals have better sentiments, because they do not find themselves suddenly confronted with imperious necessities; but war takes away the easy supply of daily wants and so proves a rough master that brings most men's characters to a level with their fortunes

Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.