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The secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom is courage.

Thucydides

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Thucydides
Historian
Courage
Secret
Happiness
Freedom

More quotes by Thucydides

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We secure our friends not by accepting favours but by doing them.
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Three of the gravest failings, want of sense, of courage, or of vigilance.
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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.
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We must not disguise from ourselves that we go to found a city among strangers and enemies, and he who undertakes such an enterprise should be prepared to become master of the country the first day he lands, or failing in this find everything hostile to him.
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It is from the greatest dangers that the greatest glory is to be won.
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The whole earth is the sepulchre of famous men.
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I have often before now been convinced that a democracy is incapable of empire.
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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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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
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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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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He passes through life most securely who has least reason to reproach himself with complaisance toward his enemies.
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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We Greeks are lovers of the beautiful, yet simple in our tastes, and we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness.
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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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.
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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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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The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding go out to meet it.
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