Polybius
Polybius
Polybiuswas a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period noted for his work, The Histories, which covered the period of 264–146 BC in detail. The work describes the rise of the Roman Republic to the status of dominance in the ancient Mediterranean world and included his eyewitness account of the Sack of Carthage in 146 BC. Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed constitution or the separation of powers in government, which was influential on Montesquieu's The Spirit of...
NationalityGreek
ProfessionHistorian
tales idle ifs
If history is deprived of the Truth, we are left with nothing but an idle, unprofitable tale.
leadership victory way
A good general not only sees the way to victory; he also knows when victory is impossible.
order punishment people
Since the masses of the people are inconstant, full of unruly desires, passionate, and reckless of consequences, they must be filled with fears to keep them in order. The ancients did well, therefore, to invent gods, and the belief in punishment after death.
decay subjects monarchs
All things are subject to decay and change...
children war men
In our own time the whole of Greece has been subject to a low birth rate and a general decrease of the population, owing to which cities have become deserted and the land has ceased to yield fruit, although there have neither been continuous wars nor epidemics...For as men had fallen into such a state of pretentiousness, avarice, and indolence that they did not wish to marry, or if they married to rear the children born to them, or at most as a rule but one or two of them, so as to leave these in affluence and bring them up to waste their substance, the evil rapidly and insensibly grew.
historical democracy savages
Monarchy degenerates into tyranny, aristocracy into oligarchy, and democracy into savage violence and chaos.
rights tears growing
Nor ought we ever to allow any growing power to acquire such a degree of strength as to be able to tear from us, without resistance, our natural, undisputed rights.
motivational winning knowing
Knowing how to win is the first step. We must also know how to make use of our victories.
half done said
When the ancients said a work well begun was half done, they meant to impress the importance of always endeavoring to make a good beginning.
sports wisdom winning
Those who know how to win are much more numerous than those who know how to make proper use of their victories.
kings ambition fighting
How highly should we honor the Macedonians, who for the greater part of their lives never cease from fighting with the barbarians for the sake of the security of Greece? For who is not aware that Greece would have constantly stood in the greater danger, had we not been fenced by the Macedonians and the honorable ambition of their kings?
integrity men good-man
[There can be no] rational administration of government when good men are held in the same esteem as bad ones.
causes events should
On any occasion when one can discover the cause of events, one should not resort to the gods.
ambitious civil excluded expense feed hopes livelihood mere produces property reign soon sweets
For the mob, habituated to feed at the expense of others, and to have its hopes of a livelihood in the property of its neighbors, as soon as it has got a leader sufficiently ambitious and daring, being excluded by poverty from the sweets of civil honors, produces a reign of mere violence.