The Thucydides Trap“The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon [Sparta], made war inevitable.”
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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“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“So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand.”
— Thucydides Primary source“I am more afraid of our own blunders than of the enemy’s devices.”
— 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“Necessity never made a good bargain.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“A war postponed may be a war averted.”
— Winston Churchill Primary source“In those days we did not trust anyone who had not been in the war, but we did not completely trust anyone.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.”
— Winston Churchill Primary source