“I am more afraid of our own blunders than of the enemy’s devices.”
Thucydides
History of the Peloponnesian War (Primary source)
The History of the Peloponnesian War is about what happens when a rising power threatens an established one. Spoiler: nothing good.
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“The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon [Sparta], made war inevitable.”
— Thucydides Primary source“Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”
— Thucydides Primary source“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.”
— Thucydides Primary source“The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest; but if it be judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it, I shall be content. In fine, I have written my work, not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time.”
— Thucydides Primary source“There’s hardly anything more important than being rational or objective.”
— Charlie Munger Primary source“He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss.”
— Leonardo da Vinci Primary source“Today is yesterday’s pupil.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Let him think I am more man than I am and I will be so.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source