Thucydides

"To work without passion is merely to exist."

"Success is not the opposite of failure; it is built upon it."

"The greatest risk is the risk of taking no risks."

"To judge a man, look at how he treats those who can do nothing for him."

"The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."

"It is a habit of mankind to entrust to careless hope what they long for, and to use sovereign reason only in examining what they fear."

"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."

"Men's opinions are not fixed and unchangeable entities, but fluid and subject to revision."

"The secret to happiness is freedom, and the secret to freedom is courage."

"Great empires are not maintained by timidity."

"The whole of the earth is the tomb of heroic men and their story is not given only on stone over their clay but lives on in the minds of men."

"The nature of the case first inflicts the blow of disaster on a man; it is then that his character determines how he shall behave."

"He will therefore find it advantageous to listen patiently to the proposals of those who think they have discovered a more expedient course."

"It is customary in tackling a neighbouring state to ravage its land as a means of putting pressure on it."

"The cause of all the troubles will be found to be the love of money and the love of power."

"In the arena of human life, the honors and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action."

"A man who has the knowledge but lacks the power to express it is no better off than if he never had any ideas at all."

"Just as it is better to light a lamp than curse the darkness, it is better to take action to change things than to complain about them."

"The victor will never be asked if he told the truth."

"Fear is an instructor of great sagacity and the herald of all revolutions."

"We must remember that the tyranny of change is the only permanence."

"Ignorance can indeed be dispelled by knowledge, but most often it persists in those who choose not to seek it."

"The individual who has not suffered cannot become truly wise."

"It is the nature of man to resist change and embrace the comfort of the familiar."

"Those who anticipate the future without understanding the past are doomed to repeat its errors."

"The measure of a person is not what they say but what they do when no one is watching."

"A city that relies on walls alone, without courage in its people, will surely fall."

"In war, as in life, deception is often more valuable than superior numbers."

"The greatest security against revolution is in rendering justice to all."

"Men may blame the gods, but they seldom blame themselves for their misfortunes."