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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.

Thucydides

It is men who make a city, not walls or ships.
THUCYDIDES

Infrastructure Man Wall
The secret of freedom, courage.
THUCYDIDES

Courage Freedom One Liner Secret
Those who have experienced good and bad luck many times have every reason to be skeptical of successes.
THUCYDIDES

Experience Reason Success Time
We Greeks are lovers of the beautiful, yet simple in our tastes, and we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness.
THUCYDIDES

Beautiful Cultivate Loss Lover Man Simplicity
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.
THUCYDIDES

Blame Himself Liberty Power Prevent Right
The strength of an Army lies in strict discipline and undeviating obedience to its officers.
THUCYDIDES

Discipline Lying Obedience Strength Strict
We secure our friends not by accepting favours but by doing them.
THUCYDIDES

Acceptance Action Friendship Security
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.
THUCYDIDES

Behavior Best Equality Success Superior Treat
The strong do what they have to do and the weak accept what they have to accept.
THUCYDIDES

Acceptance Strong Weakness
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
Hope, danger’s comforter.
THUCYDIDES

Comfortable Dangerous Hope
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.
THUCYDIDES

Attention Deserve Enjoyment Human Justice People Praise Situation
The cause of all these evils was the lust for power arising from greed and ambition; and from these passions proceeded the violence of parties once engaged in contention.
THUCYDIDES

Ambition Content Engagement Evil Lust Party Power Rise Violence
Mankind apparently find it easier to drive away adversity than to retain prosperity.
THUCYDIDES

Drive Easy Finding Kind Man Prosperity
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
You should punish in the same manner those who commit crimes with those who accuse falsely.
THUCYDIDES

Commitment Crime Fake Punishment
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.
THUCYDIDES

Desire Habit Hope Kind Man Reason
Men’s indignation, it seems, is more exited by legal wrong than by violent wrong; the first looks like being cheated by an equal, the second like being compelled by a superior.
THUCYDIDES

Equality Exit Legal Man Superior Violence
Three of the gravest failings, want of sense, of courage, or of vigilance.
THUCYDIDES

Courage Failure Need Sense
Men do not rest content with parrying the attacks of a superior, but often strike the first blow to prevent the attack being made.
THUCYDIDES

Attack Man Prevent Rest Superior
Be convinced that to be happy means to be free and that to be free means to be brave. Therefore do not take lightly the perils of war.
THUCYDIDES

Brave Consequence Freedom Happiness Light Serious War
Ignorance is bold and knowledge reserved.
THUCYDIDES

Bold Ignorance Knowledge Reservation
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
Wars spring from unseen and generally insignificant causes, the first outbreak being often but an explosion of anger.
THUCYDIDES

Angry Break Reason See War
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
I dread our own mistakes more than the enemy’s intentions.
THUCYDIDES

Enemy Intention Mistake Myself
And where the rewards for merit are greatest, there are found the best citizens.
THUCYDIDES

Best Citizenship Greatness Reward

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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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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