Men do not rest content with parrying the attacks of a superior, but often strike the first blow to prevent the attack being made.
THUCYDIDESFor men naturally despise those who court them, but respect those who do not give way to them.
More Thucydides Quotes
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It is from the greatest dangers that the greatest glory is to be won.
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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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I am not blaming those who are resolved to rule, only those who show an even greater readiness to submit.
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Don’t confuse meaning with truth.
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He who graduates the harshest school, succeeds.
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Still hope leads men to venture; and no one ever yet put himself in peril without the inward conviction that he would succeed in his design.
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It is a common mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong end, to act first, and wait for disasters to discuss the matter.
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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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War is a matter not so much of arms as of money.
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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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It is useless to attack men who could not be controlled even if conquered, while failure would leave us in an even worse position.
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The secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom is courage.
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People get into the habit of entrusting the things they desire to wishful thinking, and subjecting things they don’t desire to exhaustive thinking.
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Those who really deserve praise are the people who, while human enough to enjoy power, nevertheless pay more attention to justice than they are compelled to do by their situation.
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We Greeks believe that a man who takes no part in public affairs is not merely lazy, but good for nothing.
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They are surely to be esteemed the bravest spirits who, having the clearest sense of both the pains and pleasures of life, do not on that account shrink from danger.
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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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In a democracy, someone who fails to get elected to office can always console himself with the thought that there was something not quite fair about it.
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And where the rewards for merit are greatest, there are found the best citizens.
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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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I dread our own mistakes more than the enemy’s intentions.
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Wars spring from unseen and generally insignificant causes, the first outbreak being often but an explosion of anger.
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Peace is an armistice in a war that is continuously going on.
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They whose minds are least sensitive to calamity, and whose hands are most quick to meet it, are the greatest men and the greatest communities.
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Most people, in fact, will not take the trouble in finding out the truth, but are much more inclined to accept the first story they hear.
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Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and respect of self, in turn, is the chief element in courage.
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