Thucydides

Every line we carry

Each one links to its source, what it means, and the shirt in any of our looks.

1. Happiness is freedom, and freedom is courage.

   In the Funeral Oration, Pericles tells the Athenians to judge that happiness is freedom and freedom is courage, and so not to shy from the dangers of war. The chain runs both ways. You cannot be happy without freedom or free without nerve.

   History 2.43.4 (Pericles' Funeral Oration), our translation from the Greek

2. The whole earth is the tomb of famous men.

   Pericles says great men have the whole earth as their tomb, remembered not by inscriptions at home but by an unwritten memory in people's minds everywhere. What you do outlasts where you are buried.

   History 2.43.3 (Pericles' Funeral Oration), our translation from the Greek

3. We love beauty without excess and wisdom without softness.

   Pericles describes the Athenian ideal: loving beauty with simplicity and loving wisdom without going soft. Taste and toughness in one person. Read the books and still be able to paddle out in winter.

   History 2.40.1 (Pericles' Funeral Oration), our translation from the Greek

4. Being poor is no shame. Not working your way out of it is.

   Pericles says no one in Athens is ashamed to admit poverty; the shame is in not fighting free of it by work. Where you start is not on you. What you do about it is.

   History 2.40.1 (Pericles' Funeral Oration), our translation from the Greek

5. The bravest know exactly what is sweet and what is terrible, and go anyway.

   Pericles says the strongest souls are those who see most clearly both the dangers and the pleasures of life, and for that reason do not turn back from danger. Courage is not ignorance of risk. It is full knowledge and a choice.

   History 2.40.3 (Pericles' Funeral Oration), our translation from the Greek

6. Ignorance makes men bold. Calculation makes them hesitate.

   Pericles claims Athenians both dare and think, whereas for others ignorance brings rashness and reflection brings hesitation. The goal is both at once: think it through, then go.

   History 2.40.3 (Pericles' Funeral Oration), our translation from the Greek

7. We make friends by doing good, not by receiving it.

   Pericles says Athens wins friends by giving help, not by getting it, and that the giver is the steadier friend. If you want loyal people around you, be the one who shows up first.

   History 2.40.4 (Pericles' Funeral Oration), our translation from the Greek

8. The best man is the one trained in the hardest school.

   The Spartan king Archidamus says one man does not differ much from another, but the best is the one raised among the hardest necessities. Comfort does not build people. Pressure does.

   History 1.84.4 (Archidamus of Sparta), our translation from the Greek

9. War is a violent teacher.

   Describing civil war in Corcyra, Thucydides says war strips away the ease of daily life and becomes a violent teacher that drags people's tempers down to their circumstances. Hard times teach, but not always good lessons. Watch what they are teaching you.

   History 3.82.2, our translation from the Greek

10. A possession for all time.

    Thucydides says he wrote his history not as a prize piece for a moment's hearing but as a possession for all time. Build for the long run. Work that is made to last usually does.

    History 1.22.4, our translation from the Greek

11. Most people won't work to find the truth. They grab what's at hand.

    After correcting popular errors about Athenian and Spartan history, Thucydides sighs that the search for truth is too much trouble for most people, who turn to whatever is ready-made. Check the story before you repeat it.

    History 1.20.3, our translation from the Greek

12. The strong do what they can. The weak suffer what they must.

    The Athenian envoys tell the people of Melos that justice only applies between equals, and otherwise the powerful do what they can and the weak give way. Thucydides records it without endorsing it. Know how the world works so you are not naive about it.

    History 5.89 (the Melian Dialogue), our translation from the Greek

13. Men are the city, not walls or empty ships.

    In the disastrous retreat from Syracuse, the Athenian general Nicias tells his beaten army that they can still raise up their city's power, because men make the city, not walls or ships with no men in them. A team is its people. Lose the building and you can rebuild; lose the people and you cannot.

    History 7.77.7 (Nicias at Syracuse), our translation from the Greek