Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and self-respect is the chief element in courage.
Most people, in fact, will not take the trouble in finding out the truth, but are much more inclined to accept the first story they hear.
We Greeks believe that a man who takes no part in public affairs is not merely lazy, but good for nothing
The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.
In a democracy, someone who fails to get elected to office can always console himself with the thought that there was something not quite fair about it.
Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men the most.
You should punish in the same manner those who commit crimes with those who accuse falsely.
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.
Ignorance is bold, and knowledge is reserved
When will there be justice in Athens? There will be justice in Athens when those who are not injured are as outraged as those who are.
They whose minds are least sensitive to calamity, and whose hands are most quick to meet it, are the greatest men and the greatest communities.
War is a matter not so much of arms as of money.
Peace is an armistice in a war that is continuously going on.
When one is deprived of ones liberty, one is right in blaming not so much the man who puts the shackles on as the one who had the power to prevent him, but did not use it.
Men's indignation, it seems, is more exited by legal wrong than by violent wrong; the first looks like being cheated by an equal, the second like being compelled by a superior.
A collision at sea will ruin your entire day
My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the needs of an immediate public, but was done to last for ever.
It is useless to attack a man who could not be controlled even if conquered, while failure would leave us in an even worse position.
It is frequently a misfortune to have very brilliant men in charge of affairs. They expect too much of ordinary men.
Men who are capable of real action first make their plans and then go forward without hesitation while their enemies have still not made up their minds.
The people made their recollections fit in with their sufferings
...when these matters are discussed by practical people, the standard of justice depends on the equality of power to compel...
Three of the greatest failings, want of sense, of courage, or of vigilance.
I think the two things most opposed to good counsel are haste and passion; haste usaully goes hand in hand with folly, passion with coarseness and narrowness of mind.
Indeed it is generally the case that men are readier to call rogues clever than simpletons honest, and are ashamed of being the second as they are proud of being the first.
It is the habit of mankind to entrust to careless hope what they long for, and to use sovereign reason to thrust aside what they do not desire
Difficulty of subsistence made the invaders reduce the numbers of the army to a point at which it might live on the country during the prosecution of the war.
It is a general rule of human nature that people despise those who treat them well, and look up to those who make no concessions.
What we should lament is not the loss of houses or of land, but the loss of men’s lives. Men come first; the rest is the fruit of their labour.
To feel pity, to be carried away by the pleasure of hearing a clever argument, to listen to the claims of decency are three things that are entirely against the interests of an imperial power.
