He passes through life most securely who has least reason to reproach himself with complaisance toward his enemies.
THUCYDIDESWars spring from unseen and generally insignificant causes, the first outbreak being often but an explosion of anger.
More Thucydides Quotes
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I have often before now been convinced that a democracy is incapable of empire.
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Concessions to adversaries only end in self reproach, and the more strictly they are avoided the greater will be the chance of security.
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The secret of freedom, courage.
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The strength of an Army lies in strict discipline and undeviating obedience to its officers.
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The peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learned to cultivate the olive and the vine.
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It is frequently a misfortune to have very brilliant men in charge of affairs. They expect too much of ordinary men.
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The secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom is courage.
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Knowledge without understanding is useless.
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Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.
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Mankind apparently find it easier to drive away adversity than to retain prosperity.
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You should punish in the same manner those who commit crimes with those who accuse falsely.
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We know that there can never be any solid friendship between individuals, or union between communities that is worth the name, unless the parties be persuaded of each others honesty
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Men do not rest content with parrying the attacks of a superior, but often strike the first blow to prevent the attack being made.
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Those who have experienced good and bad luck many times have every reason to be skeptical of successes.
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I dread our own mistakes more than the enemy’s intentions.
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It is the habit of mankind to entrust to careless hope what they long for, and to use sovereign reason to thrust aside what they do not desire.
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And it is certain that those who do not yield to their equals, who keep terms with their superiors, and are moderate towards their inferiors, on the whole succeed best.
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When one is deprived of ones liberty, one is right in blaming not so much the man who puts the shackles on as the one who had the power to prevent him, but did not use it.
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What made the war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta.
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History is Philosophy teaching by example.
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I am not blaming those who are resolved to rule, only those who show an even greater readiness to submit.
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Contempt for an assailant is best shown by bravery in action.
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Love of power, operating through greed and through personal ambition, was the cause of all these evils.
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Three of the gravest failings, want of sense, of courage, or of vigilance.
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The Thracian people, like the bloodiest of the barbarians, being ever most murderous when it has nothing to fear.
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It is men who make a city, not walls or ships.
THUCYDIDES