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“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“War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.”
— Winston Churchill Primary source“Commit a crime, and the earth is made of glass.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“It was for beauty that the world was made.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“War is a matter not so much of arms as of money.”
— Thucydides Primary source