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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.

Thucydides

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Thucydides
Historian
Must
Suffer
World
Weak
Question
Goes
Suffering
Strong
Power
Right
Equals

More quotes by Thucydides

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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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Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men most.
Thucydides
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The whole earth is the sepulchre of famous men.
Thucydides
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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.
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.
Thucydides
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Mankind apparently find it easier to drive away adversity than to retain prosperity.
Thucydides
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The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Sparta, made war inevitable.
Thucydides
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It is men who make a city, not walls or ships.
Thucydides
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we know that there can never be any solid friendship between individuals, or union between communities that is worth the name, unless the parties be persuaded of each others honesty
Thucydides
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In a word I claim that our city as a whole is an education to Greece.
Thucydides
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In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours.
Thucydides
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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.
Thucydides
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Those who have experienced good and bad luck many times have every reason to be skeptical of successes
Thucydides
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Most people, in fact, will not take the trouble in finding out the truth, but are much more inclined to accept the first story they hear.
Thucydides
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For men naturally despise those who court them, but respect those who do not give way to them.
Thucydides
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Hatred also is short lived but that which makes the splendor of the present and the glory of the future remains forever unforgotten here we bless your simplicity but do not envy your folly.
Thucydides
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Knowledge without understanding is useless.
Thucydides
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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.
Thucydides
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Three of the gravest failings, want of sense, of courage, or of vigilance.
Thucydides
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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.
Thucydides