Deep and Meaningful

All too many of the quotations attributed to Thucydides on the internet fall into one of three categories: not quite what he said, not really what he meant, or not actually Thucydides at all. Or, more succinctly, sad, bad, or mad. Okay, as a would-be ‘Morley’s Law of Thucydides Quotes’ that is pretty thin and equivocating, but anything more assertive would be too easily falsified with reference to the numerous bland but basically innocuous citations of “the secret of happiness is freedom, the secret of freedom is courage”. Yes, I do understand that the Royal Road to a world-straddling media profile, enormous book sales and the adoration of thousands of beautiful women is to pick an intellectual gimmick and defend it to the death, but I’m just too much of a British academic for that.

When it comes to misattributions, as I’ve remarked before, the reason for attaching a quote to Thucydides is normally pretty obvious: as a figure with inherited authority in the fields of war and politics, he generally attracts quotes about war and politics. But not always; the version of Thucydides that I find the weirdest is his incarnation as self-help guru and motivational speaker, such as the following, which I came across on Twitter this morning for the first time:

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

You what? I’m not even sure what that’s supposed to mean. One possible answer is offered by tracing this back to what appears to be its source, a 2014 Forbes article on ’10 Classical Quotes for Modern Investors’, written by one Panos Mourdoukoutas.

The market has been treating you well in recent years. You have been in the right stocks. You have amassed a small fortune. And now you’re asking yourself some questions: Should you stay in the market to see your fortune grow bigger — or cash out? Should you treat missed opportunities the same as actual losses? How should you treat negative news about your favorite stock holdings? What should you do when your brain is hyped over a stock? The answers to these questions are to be found in the wisdom of anquity. [sic]

I have at times thought that writing a book on Thucydides’ Secrets to Success for the airport bookshop community might be a lucrative move. It might seem that this plan has been preempted by more than my lack of time – but my book would be better founded in Thucydides’ actual words.

8. “Those who have experienced good and bad luck many times have every reason to be skeptical of successes” –Thucydides

9. “People get into the habit of entrusting the things they desire to wishful thinking, and subjecting things they don’t desire to exhaustive thinking” —Thucydides

10. “Amassing of wealth is an opportunity for good deeds, not hubris” –Thucydides

Okay, the last one is genuine (Pericles at 2.40.1), while number 9 is a rather odd but more or less accurate rendition of 4.108.4 (Athenian allies considering possibility of revolt after Brasidas’ capture of Amphipolis). I guess it’s possible that both 8 and the quote about lifestyles above (which is 7) are also correct, though Google so far brings up only other motivational sites offering the same version, rather than anything that I can trace back to an actual translation or paraphrase of Thucydides. Sad, bad or mad – or at least rather silly – or all three?