For the true author of the subjugation of a people is not so much the immediate agent, as the power which permits it having the means to prevent it.
Use itGS4 on complicity: those able to prevent injustice but don't are responsible.
Quotes / Thinkers / Thucydides
Thinker · 14 quotes
Thucydides quotes for UPSC
14 sourced quotes by Thucydides on courage, peace, non-violence & conflict, relationships & friendship, duty & responsibility, power & corruption, with a use case for each in GS4, Essay and interviews.
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The secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom is courage.
Use itEssay: happiness requires freedom; freedom requires courage.
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.
— ThucydidesVariant translations:But the palm of courage will surely be adjudged most justly to those, who best know the difference between hardship and
Use itGS4 on courage: the bravest see danger clearly and still face it.
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.
Use itGS2 on appeasement: yielding invites greater demands; firmness earns equality.
war is a matter not so much of arms as of money,
Use itGS3 on defence economics: war depends on money more than arms.
It is a common mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong end, to act first, and wait for disaster to discuss the matter.
Use itGS4 on planning: don't act first and discuss after disaster.
The real cause I consider to be the one which was formerly most kept out of sight. The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired the Lacedaemon, made war inevitable.
— ThucydidesBook I, 1.23-[6]. (See:Thucydides Trap)
Use itGS2 on 'Thucydides trap': rising power's fear among established powers makes war likely.
Of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a necessary law of their nature they rule wherever they can.
Use itGS2 on realism in IR: powers rule wherever they can.
So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand.
— ThucydidesVariant translation: "...the search for truth strains the patience of most people, who would rather believe the first things that come to ha
Use itEssay on fake news: people accept the first story without verifying.
The Spartans meanwhile, man to man, and with their war songs in the ranks, exhorted each brave comrade to remember what he had learned before; well aware that the long training of action was of more use for saving lives than any brief verbal exhortation, though ever so well delivered.
Use itLife: long training saves you more than last-minute pep talks.
I am more afraid of our own blunders than of the enemy's devices.
— ThucydidesHistory of the Peloponnesian War / Book I
Use itLife/GS4: fear your own blunders more than rivals' tactics.
I think the two things most opposed to good counsel are haste and passion; haste usually goes hand in hand with folly, passion with coarseness and narrowness of mind.
— ThucydidesBook III, 3.42-[1] (Speech of Diodotus)
Use itGS4 on decision-making: haste and passion are enemies of good counsel.
And it is certain that those who do not yield to their equals, who keep terms with their superiors, and are moderate towards their inferiors, on the whole succeed best.
Use itGS4 on conduct: firm with equals, respectful to superiors, moderate to subordinates.
we know that there can never be any solid friendship between individuals, or union between communities that is worth the name, unless the parties be persuaded of each others honesty,
Use itGS2/Life: friendships and alliances rest on mutual trust in honesty.