Frases de Tucídides
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
„Entre nós é vergonhoso reconhecer a própria pobreza; mas pior do que isso é não esforçar-se para escapar dela“
Fonte: A Guerra do Peloponeso
„Ponham a felicidade na liberdade e a liberdade na bravura“
Fonte: A Guerra do Peloponeso
„O homem, por natureza, é levado a desprezar quem o bajula e a admirar quem não se mostra condescendente“
Fonte: A Guerra do Peloponeso
„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.“
— Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
Variant translations:<p>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. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Thuc.+2.40.3<p>And they are most rightly reputed valiant, who though they perfectly apprehend both what is dangerous and what is easy, are never the more thereby diverted from adventuring. (translation by Thomas Hobbes http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=771&chapter=90127&layout=html&Itemid=27)<p>
Book II, 2.40-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II
„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
Book II, 2.40-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II
Contexto: 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.
„In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours.“
— Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
Book II, 2.40-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II
Contexto: 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.
„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
Book II, 2.35-[1]-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II
Contexto: 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.
„Thus they toil on in trouble and danger all the days of their life, with little opportunity for enjoying, being ever engaged in getting: their only idea of a holiday is to do what the occasion demands, and to them laborious occupation is less of a misfortune than the peace of a quiet life. To describe their character in a word, one might truly say that they were born into the world to take no rest themselves and to give none to others.“
— Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
Book I, Chapter III
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I
„Now the only sure basis of an alliance is for each party to be equally afraid of the other;“
— Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
Book III, 3.11-[2]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book III
„The country on the sea coast, now called Macedonia, was first acquired by Alexander, the father of Perdiccas, and his ancestors, originally Temenids from Argos…The whole is now called Macedonia, and at the time of the invasion of Sitalces, Perdiccas, Alexander's son, was the reigning king.“
— Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
Book II, 99,-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II
„It must be thoroughly understood that war is a necessity, and that the more readily we accept it, the less will be the ardor of our opponents, and that out of the greatest dangers communities and individuals acquire the greatest glory.“
— Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
Book I, 1.144-[3]
Variant translation: We must realize, too, that, both for cities and for individuals, it is from the greatest dangers that the greatest glory is to be won.
As translated by Rex Warner (1954).
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I
