Thucydides Quotes
A private man, however successful in his own dealing, if his country perish is involved in her destruction; but if he be an unprosperous citizen of a prosperous city, he is much more likely to recover. Seeing, then, that States can bear the misfortunes of individuals, but individuals cannot bear the misfortunes of States, let us all stand by our country.
Thucydides. The History of the Peloponnesian War. Translated by William Smith, Harper & Brothers, 1836, p. 83.
Actually the statement is not literally true though the exceptions are not numerous. People who sold their American common stocks before the 1929 stock market made money. The few people who bet against the U. S. Housing and Mortgage markets before the Meltdown of 2008, made a great deal of money. Over extended long periods, Biden’s statement is true.
Thucydides (/θjuːˈsɪdɪdiːz/; Ancient Greek: Θουκυδίδης Thoukūdídēs [tʰuːkyːdídɛːs]; c. 460 – c. 400 BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history" by those who accept his claims to have applied strict standards of impartiality and evidence-gathering and analysis of cause and effect, without reference to intervention by the deities, as outlined in his introduction to his work.
