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Donald Kagan Quotes

1932–2021 Lithuania

Donald Kagan (May 1, 1932 – August 6, 2021) was an American historian and classicist at Yale University specializing in ancient Greece. He formerly taught in the Department of History at Cornell University.

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Random Donald Kagan quote

5 quotes

The peace does not keep itself, and though it may be intellectually unfashionable to say so, the world needs a policeman.

Concerns about the decline of liberty in our whole polity is what threatens all of the aspects of it, including democracy.

We are the product of Western civilization, so it’s necessary to understand yourself before you can understand anyone else.

The development of hoplite warfare took place in this context of novel agrarianism, which promoted a particular type of moral excellence.

Men of Bronze: Hoplite Warfare in Ancient Greece (2013)

Seeing what Hitler and the Nazis had done, I knew there was real evil in the world, and after that, I couldn’t take pacifists seriously.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Donald Kagan (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.