“The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom is courage” — meaning, who said it, and the source

It comes from Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War (2.43.4), in the Funeral Oration he gives to the Athenian leader Pericles. The popular line is a paraphrase: Richard Crawley’s translation reads “judging happiness to be the fruit of freedom and freedom of valour”. The word “secret” is not in the Greek.

What it means

You cannot be happy without being free, and you cannot stay free without the courage to defend that freedom. In the speech it is a call to the living to follow the example of the Athenians who died in the war’s first year.

Where it comes from

The words belong to a speech. Thucydides reports the oration Pericles gave at the public funeral for Athens’ war dead, and, as with all speeches in his History, the wording is Thucydides’ own. The Greek is very compressed — literally, “having judged happiness freedom, freedom courage” — so every translator fills in the links differently. Richard Crawley: “These take as your model and, judging happiness to be the fruit of freedom and freedom of valour, never decline the dangers of war.”

The popular version keeps the idea but drops the rest of the sentence, which is an appeal not to shrink from the dangers of war. The University of Bristol’s Thucydides project notes that it is not clear where the word “secret” came from; it does not appear in the Greek or in the classic translations.

Other versions you will see

“These take as your model and, judging happiness to be the fruit of freedom and freedom of valour, never decline the dangers of war.”
Richard Crawley’s translation (Project Gutenberg).
“Make them your examples, and, esteeming courage to be freedom and freedom to be happiness, do not weigh too nicely the perils of war.”
Benjamin Jowett’s translation (1881), as quoted by the University of Bristol.
“In imitation therefore of these men, and placing happiness in liberty, and liberty in valour, be forward to encounter the dangers of war.”
Thomas Hobbes’s translation (Wikisource).
“judging freedom to be happiness and courage to be freedom”
C. F. Smith’s translation (Loeb Classical Library, 1919), which orders the terms the other way round.

Provenance

Primary textThucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, tr. Richard Crawley — Project Gutenberg
Primary textThucydides, Histories (Greek text), 2.43.4 — Perseus Digital Library (canonical-greekLit)
Primary textPericles’s Funeral Oration, tr. Thomas Hobbes — Wikisource
ReferenceII.43: Text and Translation (Thinking Through Thucydides) — University of Bristol, Department of Classics and Ancient History

Last reviewed 29 September 2026

Questions

Did Thucydides say “the secret of happiness is freedom”?

Not in those words. It is a modern paraphrase of a line in Pericles’ Funeral Oration as written by Thucydides (History of the Peloponnesian War 2.43.4). The word “secret” is a later addition.

Who actually spoke the words — Thucydides or Pericles?

In the History the speech is given to Pericles, the Athenian leader, at the funeral for the war dead. Thucydides wrote the speech down in his own words, so the line is usually credited to both.

What is the full sentence?

In Crawley’s translation: “These take as your model and, judging happiness to be the fruit of freedom and freedom of valour, never decline the dangers of war.”

Where this one hangs

It belongs in the Kindness room, with the other checked lines on the same subject.