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We secure our friends not by accepting favours but by doing them.

Thucydides

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Thucydides
Historian
Favours
Thrive
Favors
Secure
Friendship
Accepting
Friends
Inspirational

More quotes by Thucydides

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Abstinence from all injustice to other first-rate powers is a greater tower of strength than anything that can be gained by the sacrifice of permanent tranquillity for an apparent temporary advantage.
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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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In peace and prosperity states and individuals have better sentiments, because they do not find themselves suddenly confronted with imperious necessities but war takes away the easy supply of daily wants and so proves a rough master that brings most men's characters to a level with their fortunes
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For men can endure to hear others praised only so long as they can severally persuade themselves of their own ability to equal the actions recounted: when this point is passed, envy comes in and with it incredulity.
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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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Boasting and bravado may exist in the breast even of the coward, if he is successful through a mere lucky hit but a just contempt of an enemy can alone arise in those who feel that they are superior to their opponent by the prudence of their measures.
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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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It is from the greatest dangers that the greatest glory is to be won.
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I have often before now been convinced that a democracy is incapable of empire.
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War is a matter not so much of arms as of money.
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We Greeks are lovers of the beautiful, yet simple in our tastes, and we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness.
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The secret of freedom, courage.
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If you give way, you will instantly have to meet some greater demand, as having been frightened into obedience in the first instance while a firm refusal will make them clearly understand that they must treat you more as equals.
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The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Sparta, made war inevitable.
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It is useless to attack men who could not be controlled even if conquered, while failure would leave us in an even worse position.
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For we both alike know that into the discussion of human affairs the question of justice enters only where the pressure of necessity is equal, and that the powerful exact what they can, and the weak grant what they must.
Thucydides
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... Athenians are addicted to innovation. They are daring beyond their judgment they toil on with little opportunity for enjoying, being ever engaged in getting, they were born into the world to take no rest themselves, and to give none to others.
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Amassing of wealth is an opportunity for good deeds, not hubris
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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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Wealth to us is not mere material for vainglory but an opportunity for achievement and poverty we think it no disgrace to acknowledge but a real degredation to make no effort to overcome.
Thucydides