Tides of War Quotes

“Cousin, the days of gods and heroes are over."
"Not to me. Not to them.”
― Steven Pressfield, Tides of War: A Novel of Alcibiades and the Peloponnesian War

“the man who really loves his country is not the one who refuses to attack it when he has been unjustly driven from it, but the man whose desire for it is so strong that he will shrink from nothing in his efforts to get back there again.”
― Steven Pressfield, Tides of War: A Novel

“Who slays a tyrant is no murderer but patriot. A deliverer of his country, as Harmodius and Aristogeiton!”
― Steven Pressfield, Tides of War: A Novel

“The Athens I love is not the one which is wronging me now, but that one in which I used to have secure enjoyment of my rights as a citizen. That country that I am attacking does not seem to be mine any longer; it is rather that I am trying to recover a country that has ceased to be mine. And the man who really loves his country is not the one who refuses to attack it when he has been unjustly driven from it, but the man whose desire for it is so strong that he will shrink from nothing in his efforts to get back there again.”
― Steven Pressfield, Tides of War: A Novel

“Strife is life’s oldest and most holy fundament.”
― Steven Pressfield, Tides of War: A Novel

“Now the brave man. In dark hours he endures silently, uncomplaining. Reverencing the round of heaven’s seasons, he does what must be done, sustaining himself with the certainty that to endure injustice with patience is the mark of piety and wisdom.”
― Steven Pressfield, Tides of War: A Novel

“But a ship of war runs on heart as much as sweat. There must be love among the men or you’re finished.”
― Steven Pressfield, Tides of War: A Novel

“Nothing, not even a horse-breeding establishment, eats cash like a ship, and none gobbles it more greedily than a trireme.”
― Steven Pressfield, Tides of War: A Novel

“A commander’s role is to model arete, excellence, before his men. One need not thrash them to greatness; only hold it out before them. They will be compelled by their own nature to emulate it.”
― Steven Pressfield, Tides of War: A Novel

“There is another telling aspect to a show of naval might. This is its temerity. A fleet carries with it the audacity of its enterprise. The stay-at-home foe is stricken by its sudden apparition. The enemy beholding a navy advancing upon him out of the aether is struck with dread, as Priam himself when Achilles’ black ships beached upon the plain of Troy.”
― Steven Pressfield, Tides of War: A Novel

“In defeat one learns who are friends to him, and by whom he is accounted friend.”
― Steven Pressfield, Tides of War: A Novel

“She is a wide bed
who holds both democracy and empire,”
― Steven Pressfield, Tides of War: A Novel

“The good alone die young.”
― Steven Pressfield, Tides of War: A Novel