Brave. Strong. Articulate. That’s how I aim to be. And, throughout the book, there are countless examples of men who possessed these qualities. Many passages contain bits of wisdom, which really put things into perspective. I feel, after reading this book, I should aim higher. I should raise the bar and reach as high as I can. Many of the great men portrayed in the book did it, and it enabled them to acquire the qualities I mentioned. In essence, this book showcases how to be great or the exact opposite of that.

“The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest; but if it be judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it, I shall be content.”

There’s no point in writing a sappy description about the book’s greatness — the book speaks for itself. However, I thought I’d share some bits with you, as I found them inspiring.

Interesting bits:

• 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.
• Your position, therefore, from whatever quarter you may view it, will amply justify you in going to wars and this step we recommend in the interest of all, bearing in mind that identity of interest is the surest of bonds, whether between states or individuals.
• We must cry not over the loss of houses and land but of men’s lives; since houses and land do not gain men, but men them.
• 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.
• For Athens alone of her contemporaries is found when tested to be greater than her reputation, and alone gives no occasion to her assailants to blush at the antagonist by whom they have been worsted, or to her subjects to question her title by merit to rule.
• For heroes have the whole earth for their tomb; and in lands far from their own, where the column with its epitaph declares it, there is enshrined in every breast a record unwritten with no tablet to preserve it, except that of the heart.
• For grief is felt not so much for the want of what we have never known, as for the loss of that to which we have been long accustomed.
• Born, however, as you are, citizens of a great state, and brought up, as you have been, with habits equal to your birth, you should be ready to face the greatest disasters and still to keep unimpaired the lustre of your name.
• Such a man must plainly either have such confidence in his rhetoric as to adventure to prove that what has been once for all decided is still undetermined, or be bribed to try to delude us by elaborate sophisms.
• What is still more intolerable is to accuse a speaker of making a display in order to be paid for it. If ignorance only were imputed, an unsuccessful speaker might retire with a reputation for honesty, if not for wisdom; while the charge of dishonesty makes him suspected, if successful, and thought, if defeated, not only a fool but a rogue.
• Good deeds can be shortly stated, but where wrong is done a wealth of language is needed to veil its deformity.
• As it is more disgraceful for persons of character to take what they covet by fair-seeming fraud than by open force; the one aggression having for its justification the might which fortune gives, the other being simply a piece of clever roguery.
• Athenians, I shall only say a few words to you, but brave men require no more, and they are addressed more to your understanding than to your courage.
• Indeed there seemed to be no danger in so doing; their mistake in their estimate of the Athenian power was as great as that power afterwards turned out to be, and their judgement was based more upon blind wishing than upon any sound prevision; for it is a habit of mankind to entrust to careless hope what they long for, and to use sovereign reason to thrust aside what they do not fancy.
• Make no show of cowardice then on your part, seeing the greatness of the issues at stake, and I will show that what I preach to others I can practice myself.
• Since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in powers, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.
• As far as right goes they think one has as much of it as the other, and that if any maintain their independence it is because they are strong, and that if we do not molest them it is because we are afraid; so that besides extending our empire we should gain in security by your subjection; the fact that you are islanders and weaker than others rendering it all the more important that you should not succeed in baffling the masters of the sea.