PREMIUM FEATURE
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“ ”(Athenian embassy:) [I]f through some legal decision of ours, or exercise of our imperial power, contrary to their own ideas of right, they suffer ever so little, they are not grateful for our moderation in leaving them so much, but are far more offended at their trifling loss than if we had from the first plundered them in the face of day, laying aside all thought of law. For then they would themselves have admitted that the weaker must give way to the stronger.
Mankind resent injustice more than violence, because the one seems to be an unfair advantage taken by an equal, the other is the irresistible force of a superior.
(Book 1 Chapter 77.3-4)
About Thucydides
Thucydides (or Thoukydides)(c. 472 BC – c. 400 BC) was an ancient Greek historian, author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens. This work is widely regarded a classic and represents the first work of its kind.
Biography information from Wikiquote
Additional quotes by Thucydides
Themistocles was a man whose natural force was unmistakable; this was the quality for which he was distinguished above all other men;from his own native acuteness, and without any study either before or at the time, he was the ablest judge of the course to be pursued in a sudden emergency,and could best divine what was likely to happen in the remotest future. Whatever he had in hand he had the power of explaining to others, and even where he had no experience he was quite competent to form a sufficient judgment;no one could foresee with equal clearness the good or evil event which was hidden in the future.In a word, Themistocles, by natural power of mind and with the least preparation, was of all men the best able to extemporise the right thing to be done.
(Book 1 Chapter 138.3)
So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand.
Schönheit liegt im Auge des Betrachters.