War is a matter not so much of arms as of money.
THUCYDIDESPeace is an armistice in a war that is continuously going on.
More Thucydides Quotes
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It is a general rule of human nature that people despise those who treat them well, and look up to those who make no concessions.
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So little trouble do men take in the search after truth; so readily do they accept whatever comes first to hand.
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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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But the prize for courage will surely be awarded most justly to those who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger.
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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.
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I think the two things most opposed to good counsel are haste and passion; haste usaully goes hand in hand with folly, passion with coarseness and narrowness of mind.
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Few things are brought to a successful issue by impetuous desire, but most by calm and prudent forethought.
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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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You shouldn’t feel sorry for the lifestyle you haven’t tasted, but for the one you are about to lose.
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Now the only sure basis of an alliance is for each party to be equally afraid of the other.
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I have often before now been convinced that a democracy is incapable of empire.
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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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knowing the secret of happiness to be freedom, and the secret of freedom a brave heart, not idly to stand aside from the enemy’s onset.
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The secret of freedom, courage.
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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