„Entre nós é vergonhoso reconhecer a própria pobreza; mas pior do que isso é não esforçar-se para escapar dela“
— Tucídides
Fonte: A Guerra do Peloponeso
Frases de Tucídides
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Tucídides
Tucídides, em grego Θουκυδίδης, transl. Thukydídēs, foi um historiador da Grécia Antiga.
Escreveu a História da Guerra do Peloponeso, da qual foi testemunha e participante, em que, em oito volumes, conta a guerra entre Esparta e Atenas ocorrida no século V a.C.. Preocupado com a imparcialidade, ele relata os fatos com concisão e procura explicar-lhes as causas. Tucídides escreveu essa obra pois pensava a Guerra do Peloponeso como um acontecimento de grande relevância para a história da Grécia, mais do que qualquer outra guerra anterior. Esta sua obra é vista no mundo inteiro como um clássico, e representa a primeira obra de seu estilo.
A obra de Tucídides foi revalorizada no ocidente devido à tradução da História da Guerra do Peloponeso para o inglês, por Thomas Hobbes.Tucídides também foi um dos primeiros a notar que as pessoas que sobreviviam às epidemias de peste em Atenas eram poupadas durante os surtos posteriores da mesma doença, conhecimento importante que num futuro remoto seria a base da vacinação. Portanto, considera-se que por conta de sua imparcialidade analítica Tucídides foi um dos pais da ciência histórica. Sua imparcialidade o levou a negar a influência de deuses em suas analises, o que gerou seu exílio de Atenas.
Pelo foco no problema da guerra e devido à análise dos conflitos entre as Pólis da Grécia Antiga, a corrente de pensamento teórico realista das Relações Internacionais, no século XX, passou a considerar Tucídides como o "avô" do próprio realismo.
Citações Tucídides
„Ponham a felicidade na liberdade e a liberdade na bravura“
— Tucídides
Fonte: A Guerra do Peloponeso
„O homem, por natureza, é levado a desprezar quem o bajula e a admirar quem não se mostra condescendente“
— Tucídides
Fonte: A Guerra do Peloponeso
„I could have wished that the reputations of many brave men were not to be imperilled in the mouth of a single individual, to stand or fall according as he spoke well or ill. For it is hard to speak properly upon a subject where it is even difficult to convince your hearers that you are speaking the truth.“
— Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II, Context: I could have wished that the reputations of many brave men were not to be imperilled in the mouth of a single individual, to stand or fall according as he spoke well or ill. For it is hard to speak properly upon a subject where it is even difficult to convince your hearers that you are speaking the truth. On the one hand, the friend who is familiar with every fact of the story may think that some point has not been set forth with that fullness which he wishes and knows it to deserve; on the other, he who is a stranger to the matter may be led by envy to suspect exaggeration if he hears anything above his own nature. For men can endure to hear others praised only so long as they can severally persuade themselves of their own ability to equal the actions recounted: when this point is passed, envy comes in and with it incredulity.
Book II, 2.35-[1]-[3]
„In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours.“
— Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II, Context: Again, in our enterprises we present the singular spectacle of daring and deliberation, each carried to its highest point, and both united in the same persons; although usually decision is the fruit of ignorance, hesitation of reflection. But the palm of courage will surely be adjudged most justly to those, who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger. In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours.
Book II, 2.40-[3]
„Again, in our enterprises we present the singular spectacle of daring and deliberation, each carried to its highest point, and both united in the same persons; although usually decision is the fruit of ignorance, hesitation of reflection.“
— Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II, Context: Again, in our enterprises we present the singular spectacle of daring and deliberation, each carried to its highest point, and both united in the same persons; although usually decision is the fruit of ignorance, hesitation of reflection. But the palm of courage will surely be adjudged most justly to those, who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger. In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours.
Book II, 2.40-[3]
„they possess most gold and silver, by which war, like everything else, flourishes.“
— Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book VI, Book VI, 6.34; "they have abundance of gold and silver, and these make war, like other things, go smoothly" ( trans. http://www.classicpersuasion.org/pw/thucydides/jthucbk6rv2.htm Benjamin Jowett)
„Disdain is the privilege of those who, like us, have been assured by reflection of their superiority to their adversary. And where the chances are the same, knowledge fortifies courage by the contempt which is its consequence, its trust being placed, not in hope, which is the prop of the desperate, but in a judgment grounded upon existing resources, whose anticipations are more to be depended upon.“
— Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II, Book II, 2.62-[4]-[5]
„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.“
— Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I, Book I, 1.78-[3]
„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.“
— Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I, Book I, 69.
„But the prize for courage will surely be awarded most justly to those who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger.“
— Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II, Book II, 2.40-[3]
„I think the two things most opposed to good counsel are haste and passion; haste usually goes hand in hand with folly, passion with coarseness and narrowness of mind.“
— Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book III, Book III, 3.42-[1] (Speech of Diodotus..).
