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The peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learned to cultivate the olive and the vine.

Thucydides

I dread our own mistakes more than the enemy’s intentions.
THUCYDIDES

Enemy Intention Mistake Myself
The secret of freedom, courage.
THUCYDIDES

Courage Freedom One Liner Secret
Knowledge without understanding is useless.
THUCYDIDES

Knowledge Understand Wasted
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
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
Now the only sure basis of an alliance is for each party to be equally afraid of the other.
THUCYDIDES

Afraid Basis Equality Fear Party
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
Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and respect of self, in turn, is the chief element in courage.
THUCYDIDES

Chief Control Courage Element Respect
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
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
It is from the greatest dangers that the greatest glory is to be won.
THUCYDIDES

Dangerous Glory Greatness Win
What made the war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta.
THUCYDIDES

Fear Growth Reason War
Speculation is carried on in safety, but, when it comes to action, fear causes failure.
THUCYDIDES

Action Carry Failure Fear Safety
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
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.
THUCYDIDES

Calm Community Greatness Hands Man Mindset Sensitive
I have often before now been convinced that a democracy is incapable of empire.
THUCYDIDES

Capable Democracy Empire

The peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learned to cultivate the olive and the vine.

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The peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learned to cultivate the olive and the vine.

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