Daily Archives: November 1, 2018

Grendel’s Laundry List: Least Remarkable Intelligence

thucydides peloponnesian war luck

As a rule those who were least remarkable for intelligence showed the greater powers of survival. Such people recognized their own deficiencies and the superior intelligence of their opponents; fearing that they might lose a debate or find themselves out-maneuvered in intrigue by their quick-witted enemies, they boldly launched straight into action; while their opponents, overconfident in the belief that they would see what was happening in advance, and not thinking it necessary to seize by force what they could secure by policy, were the more easily destroyed because they were off their guard.

Thucydides (c. 460-400 BCE), History of the Peloponnesian War