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Indeed it is generally the case that men are readier to call rogues clever than simpletons honest, and are ashamed of being the second as they are proud of being the first.

Thucydides

Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.
THUCYDIDES

Courage Deep Freedom Happiness
Human nature is the one constant through human history. It is always there.
THUCYDIDES

Existence History Human Nature
It is from the greatest dangers that the greatest glory is to be won.
THUCYDIDES

Dangerous Glory Greatness Win
Love of power, operating through greed and through personal ambition, was the cause of all these evils.
THUCYDIDES

Ambition Evil Love Operation Personal Power Reason
Ignorance is bold and knowledge reserved.
THUCYDIDES

Bold Ignorance Knowledge Reservation
When tremendous dangers are involved, no one can be blamed for looking to his own interest.
THUCYDIDES

Blame Dangerous Interest
For so remarkably perverse is the nature of man that he despises whoever courts him, and admires whoever will not bend before him.
THUCYDIDES

Admire Court Himself Man Nature Remark
I am not blaming those who are resolved to rule, only those who show an even greater readiness to submit.
THUCYDIDES

Blame Greatness Myself Ready Rule Submit
Concessions to adversaries only end in self reproach, and the more strictly they are avoided the greater will be the chance of security.
THUCYDIDES

Adversity Avoid Chance End Greatness Security Strict
Those who have experienced good and bad luck many times have every reason to be skeptical of successes.
THUCYDIDES

Experience Reason Success Time
An avowal of poverty is no disgrace to any man; to make no effort to escape it is indeed disgraceful.
THUCYDIDES

Effort Escape Grace Man Poverty
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.
THUCYDIDES

Democracy Election Failure Fair Office Quite
When a man finds a conclusion agreeable, he accepts it without argument, but when he finds it disagreeable, he will bring against it all the forces of logic and reason.
THUCYDIDES

Agreement Finding Force Logic Man Reason
Hope is an expensive commodity. It makes better sense to be prepared.
THUCYDIDES

Better Expensive Hope Item Preparation Sense
The peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learned to cultivate the olive and the vine.
THUCYDIDES

Beginning Cultivation Learning People
What made the war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta.
THUCYDIDES

Fear Growth Reason War
Amassing of wealth is an opportunity for good deeds, not hubris.
THUCYDIDES

Action Goodness Opportunity Wealth
People get into the habit of entrusting the things they desire to wishful thinking, and subjecting things they don’t desire to exhaustive thinking.
THUCYDIDES

Desire Habit People Subject Thinking Trust
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.
THUCYDIDES

Fact Finding Hear People Story Trouble Truth
He passes through life most securely who has least reason to reproach himself with complaisance toward his enemies.
THUCYDIDES

Enemy Himself Life Reason Secure
Stories happen to those who tell them.
THUCYDIDES

Convey Story Talk
For they had learned that true safety was to be found in long previous training, and not in eloquent exhortations uttered when they were going into action.
THUCYDIDES

Action Learning Safety Training True
We Greeks believe that a man who takes no part in public affairs is not merely lazy, but good for nothing.
THUCYDIDES

Believe Goodness Man Public
It is frequently a misfortune to have very brilliant men in charge of affairs. They expect too much of ordinary men.
THUCYDIDES

Affair Brilliant Charge Expectation Man Misfortune
We must remember that one man is much the same as another, and that he is best who is trained in the severest school.
THUCYDIDES

Himself Man Remember School Training
Contempt for an assailant is best shown by bravery in action.
THUCYDIDES

Action Assasination Best Brave
He who graduates the harshest school, succeeds.
THUCYDIDES

Difficult Graduation Himself School Success

Indeed it is generally the case that men are readier to call rogues clever than simpletons honest, and are ashamed of being the second as they are proud of being the first.

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Indeed it is generally the case that men are readier to call rogues clever than simpletons honest, and are ashamed of being the second as they are proud of being the first.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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