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I have written my work, not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time

Thucydides

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Thucydides
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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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...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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The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Sparta, made war inevitable.
Thucydides
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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.
Thucydides
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Full of hopes beyond their power though not beyond their ambition.
Thucydides
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Remember that this greatness was won by men with courage, with knowledge of their duty, and with a sense of honor in action.
Thucydides
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We secure our friends not by accepting favours but by doing them.
Thucydides
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I have often before now been convinced that a democracy is incapable of empire.
Thucydides
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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
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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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They are surely to be esteemed the bravest spirits who, having the clearest sense of both the pains and pleasures of life, do not on that account shrink from danger.
Thucydides
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The secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom is courage.
Thucydides
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Mankind apparently find it easier to drive away adversity than to retain prosperity.
Thucydides
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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.
Thucydides
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War is an evil thing but to submit to the dictation of other states is worse.... Freedom, if we hold fast to it, will ultimately restore our losses, but submission will mean permanent loss of all that we value.... To you who call yourselves men of peace, I say: You are not safe unless you have men of action on your side.
Thucydides
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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.
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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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
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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.
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