Thucydides (c. 460-400 BCE)
“‘Slow’ and ‘cautious’ can equally well be ‘wise’ and ‘sensible.’ Certainly it is because we possess these qualities that we are the only people who do not become arrogant when we are successful, and who in times of stress are less likely to give in than others.”
- History of the Peloponnesian War (Book I, chapter 84) by Thucydides, translated by Rex Warner and introduced by M. I. Finley. New York: Penguin Classics, 1972. This quote is from a speech that Thucydides manufactured for King Archidamus of Sparta, explaining the reasoning behind Sparta’s caution around the time of the Peloponnesian War.
