Top 140 Thucydides Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it.”

— Thucydides

Featured in: Courage Quotes, Warrior Quotes, Vision Quotes, Quotes About War, History Quotes

2. “The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.”

— Thucydides

3. “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.”

— Thucydides

Featured in: History Quotes

4. “Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and self-respect is the chief element in courage.”

— Thucydides

5. “The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.”

— Thucydides

6. “Knowledge without understanding is useless.”

— Thucydides

7. “Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men most.”

— Thucydides

8. “The secret of happiness is freedom.”

— Thucydides

9. “History is Philosophy teaching by example.”

— Thucydides

10. “We must remember that one man is much the same as another, and that he is best who is trained in the severest school.”

— Thucydides

11. “Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.”

— Thucydides

12. “Hope is an expensive commodity. It makes better sense to be prepared.”

— Thucydides

13. “The strong do what they have to do and the weak accept what they have to accept.”

— Thucydides

14. “Most people, in fact, will not take the trouble in finding out the truth, but are much more inclined to accept the first story they hear.”

— Thucydides

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

— Thucydides

16. “Love of power, operating through greed and through personal ambition, was the cause of all these evils.”

— Thucydides

17. “The nation that will insist on drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking done by cowards.”

— Thucydides

18. “Peace is an armistice in a war that is continuously going on.”

— Thucydides

19. “Ignorance is bold and knowledge reserved.”

— Thucydides

20. “A collision at sea can ruin your entire day.”

— Thucydides

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

— Thucydides

22. “What made the war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta.”

— Thucydides

23. “It is men who make a city, not walls or ships.”

— Thucydides

24. “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.”

— Thucydides

25. “The strength of an Army lies in strict discipline and undeviating obedience to its officers.”

— Thucydides

26. “Those who really deserve praise are the people who, while human enough to enjoy power, nevertheless pay more attention to justice than they are compelled to do by their situation.”

— Thucydides

27. “So little trouble do men take in the search after truth; so readily do they accept whatever comes first to hand.”

— Thucydides

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

— Thucydides

29. “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.”

— Thucydides

30. “The whole earth is the sepulchre of famous men.”

— Thucydides

31. “It is frequently a misfortune to have very brilliant men in charge of affairs. They expect too much of ordinary men.”

— Thucydides

32. “Indeed it is generally the case that men are readier to call rogues clever than simpletons honest, and are ashamed of being the second as they are proud of being the first.”

— Thucydides

33. “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.”

— Thucydides

34. “We secure our friends not by accepting favors but by doing them.”

— Thucydides

35. “When a man finds a conclusion agreeable, he accepts it without argument, but when he finds it disagreeable, he will bring against it all the forces of logic and reason.”

— Thucydides

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

— Thucydides

37. “For they had learned that true safety was to be found in long previous training, and not in eloquent exhortations uttered when they were going into action.”

— Thucydides

38. “You shouldn’t feel sorry for the lifestyle you haven’t tasted, but for the one you are about to lose.”

— Thucydides

39. “But the prize for courage will surely be awarded most justly to those who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger.”

— Thucydides

40. “I dread our own mistakes more than the enemy’s intentions.”

— Thucydides

41. “We Greeks are lovers of the beautiful, yet simple in our tastes, and we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness.”

— Thucydides

42. “There is no need to suppose that human beings differ very much one from another; but it is true that the ones who come out on top are the ones who have been trained in the hardest school.”

— Thucydides

43. “The peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learned to cultivate the olive and the vine.”

— Thucydides

44. “Few things are brought to a successful issue by impetuous desire, but most by calm and prudent forethought.”

— Thucydides

45. “When will there be justice in Athens? There will be justice in Athens when those who are not injured are as outraged as those who are.”

— Thucydides

46. “Of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a necessary law of their nature they rule wherever they can.”

— Thucydides

47. “It is from the greatest dangers that the greatest glory is to be won.”

— Thucydides

48. “It is useless to attack men who could not be controlled even if conquered, while failure would leave us in an even worse position...”

— Thucydides

49. “For so remarkably perverse is the nature of man that he despises whoever courts him, and admires whoever will not bend before him.”

— Thucydides

50. “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.”

— Thucydides