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.
THUCYDIDESPeace is an armistice in a war that is continuously going on.
More Thucydides Quotes
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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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Wars spring from unseen and generally insignificant causes, the first outbreak being often but an explosion of anger.
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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.
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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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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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The strong do what they have to do and the weak accept what they have to accept.
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It is from the greatest dangers that the greatest glory is to be won.
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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 frequently a misfortune to have very brilliant men in charge of affairs. They expect too much of ordinary men.
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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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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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War is a matter not so much of arms as of money.
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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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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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Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men most.
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For so remarkably perverse is the nature of man that he despises whoever courts him, and admires whoever will not bend before him.
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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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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.
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Amassing of wealth is an opportunity for good deeds, not hubris.
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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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We must remember that one man is much the same as another, and that he is best who is trained in the severest school.
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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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Of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a necessary law of their nature they rule wherever they can.
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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.
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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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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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