The Thucydides Trap
“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 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“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“So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand.”
— Thucydides Primary source“We are warlike, because self-control contains honour as a chief constituent, and honour bravery.”
— Thucydides Primary source“War is a matter not so much of arms as of money.”
— Thucydides Primary sourceDieter Rams Benjamin Franklin Thomas Jefferson Vilfredo Pareto Albert Einstein