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date: 18 March 2025

Thucydides c.455–c.400 bc
Greek historian. See also Solon 

  1. If [my history] should be judged useful by those enquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future…I shall be content.
    History of the Peloponnesian War bk. 1, ch. 22 (tr. Richard Crawley, 1874)
  2. 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.
    History of the Peloponnesian War bk. 1, ch. 22, sect. 18 (tr. Richard Crawley, 1874)
  3. The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.
    History of the Peloponnesian War bk. 5, ch. 89
  4. Of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a necessary law of their nature they rule wherever they can.
    History of the Peloponnesian War bk. 5, ch. 105