Thucydides

Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them. Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question, inaptness to act on any. Frantic violence became the attribute of manliness; cautious plotting, a justifiable means of self-defence. The advocate of extreme measures was always trustworthy; his opponent a man to be suspected. To succeed in a plot was to have a shrewd head, to divine a plot a still shrewder; but to try to provide against having to do either was to break up your party and to be afraid of your adversaries.

I am more afraid of our own blunders than of the enemy's devices.

I have often before now been convinced that a democracy is incapable of empire...

" war is a matter not so much of arms as of money,"

Abstinence from all injustice to other first-rate powers is a greater tower of strength than anything that can be gained by the sacrifice of permanent tranquillity for an apparent temporary advantage.

It is a common mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong end, to act first, and wait for disaster to discuss the matter.

For the true author of the subjugation of a people is not so much the immediate agent, as the power which permits it having the means to prevent it.

The real cause I consider to be the one which was formerly most kept out of sight. The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired the Lacedaemon, made war inevitable.

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.

But as the power of Hellas grew, and the acquisition of wealth became more an objective, the revenues of the states increasing, tyrannies were established almost everywhere...

For the love of gain would reconcile the weaker to the dominion of the stronger, and the possession of capital enabled the more powerful to reduce the smaller cities to subjection.

[C]oncessions to adversaries only end in self reproach, and the more strictly they are avoided the greater will be the chance of security.