The same qualities that make an individual noble are also the same qualities that are required for a noble state from the perspective of Thucydides. Whether it is justice and virtue or honor and honesty, Thucydides recognizes that the noble character is one who adheres to these noble qualities even if it means putting one's self in harm's way. Versatility, flexibility, and the ability to endure hardship or struggle when one knows one pursues a just pat make the individual and the state noble from Thucydides' (441 BCE) perspective, "In short, I say that as a city we are the school of Hellas, while I doubt if the world can produce a man who, where he has only himself to depend upon, is equal to so many emergencies, and graced by so happy a versatility, as the Athenian."
As we shall see with Cicero and with Sir Thomas More, anything that is considered noble for the individual is considered something that will lead to a noble government and society. Justice is another aspect considered a noble quality in Thucydides'
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