Michael > Michael's Quotes

“Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and self-respect is the chief element in courage.”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War

“Men who are capable of real action first make their plans and then go forward without hesitation while their enemies have still not made up their minds.”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War

“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

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

“In general, the men of lower intelligence won out. Afraid of their own shortcomings and of the intelligence of their opponents, so that they would not lose out in reasoned argument or be taken by surprise by their quick-witted opponents, they boldly moved into action. Their enemies,on the contrary, contemptuous and confident in their ability to anticipate, thought there was no need to take by action what they could win by their brains.”
― Thucydides

“Men's indignation, it seems, is more exited by legal wrong than by violent wrong; the first looks like being cheated by an equal, the second like being compelled by a superior.”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War

“They whose minds are least sensitive to calamity, and whose hands are most quick to meet it, are the greatest men and the greatest communities.”
― Thucydides

“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

“Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men the most.”
― F. B. Jevons, A History Of Greek Literature: From The Earliest Period To The Death Of Demosthenes

“You should punish in the same manner those who commit crimes with those who accuse falsely.”
― Thucydides

“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