Status Updates From The History of the Peloponn...

“The sufferings which revolution entailed upon the cities were many and terrible, such as have occurred and always will occur as long as the nature of mankind remains the same… 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

“Good deeds can be shortly stated, but where wrong is done a wealth of language is needed to veil its deformity.”

Alright, just a little ways in and all of those previous books and plays I read about Ancient Greece completely paid off, Thucydides and I are really on the same level right now, he’s throwing it back all the way to Pelops, explaining how Hellas got its name (from a guy named Hellen, btw)… I’m so excited to read this

Cleon again:
“Great good fortune coming suddenly and unexpectedly tends to make a people insolent: in most cases it is safer for mankind to have success in reason than out of reason; and it is easier for them, one may say, to stave off adversity than to preserve prosperity.”

From the speech of the demagogue Cleon:

“Bad laws which are never changed are better for a city than good ones that have no authority; unlearned loyalty is more serviceable than quick-witted insubordination; ordinary men usually manage public affairs better than their more gifted fellows. The latter are always wanting to appear wiser than the laws, and to overrule every proposition brought forward, thinking that