“The study of history is the best medicine for a sick mind; for in history you have a record of the infinite variety of human experience plainly set out for all to see: and in that record you can find for yourself and your country both examples and warnings: fine things to take as models, base things, rotten through and through, to avoid.””
“We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them.””
“It is pleasant, when the sea is high and the winds are dashing the waves about, to watch from the shores the struggles of another.””
“Indeed, that is the nature of crowds: the mob is either a humble slave or a cruel aster. As for the middle way of liberty, the mob can neither take it nor keep it with any respect for moderation or law.””
“It is your duty,' he said, 'to recover your country not by gold but by the sword. You will be fighting with all you love before your eyes: the temples of the gods, your wives and children, the soil of your native land scarred with the ravages of war, and everything which honor and truth call upon you to defend, or recover, or avenge.””
“True moderation in the defence of political liberties is indeed a difficult thing: pretending to want fair shares for all, every man raises himself by depressing his neighbour; our anxiety to avoid oppression leads us to practice it ourselves; the injustice we repel, we visit in turn upon others, as if there were no choice except either to do it or to suffer it.””
Livy, a prominent Roman historian, is best known for his monumental work 'Ab Urbe Condita,' which chronicles the history of Rome from its legendary founding in 753 BC through the early days of the Rom...
“[Rhodian delegation:]Every city contains wicked citizens from time to time and an ignorant populace all the time.””