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Mankind apparently find it easier to drive away adversity than to retain prosperity.

Thucydides

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Thucydides
Historian
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Apparently
Adversity
Prosperity
Drive
Mankind
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Away

More quotes by Thucydides

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Knowledge without understanding is useless.
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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.
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The superior gratification derived from the use and contemplation of costly and supposedly beautiful products is, commonly, in great measure a gratification of our sense of costliness masquerading under the name of beauty.
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But the prize for courage will surely be awarded most justly to those who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger.
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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.
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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.
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Mankind are tolerant of the praises of others as long as each hearer thinks that he can do as well or nearly as well himself, but, when the speaker rises above him, jealousy is aroused and he begins to be incredulous.
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In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours.
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For men naturally despise those who court them, but respect those who do not give way to them.
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Three of the gravest failings, want of sense, of courage, or of vigilance.
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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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when night came on, the Macedonians and the barbarian crowd suddenly took fright in one of those mysterious panics to which great armies are liable
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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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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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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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I could have wished that the reputations of many brave men were not to be imperilled in the mouth of a single individual, to stand or fall according as he spoke well or ill. For it is hard to speak properly upon a subject where it is even difficult to convince your hearers that you are speaking the truth.
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War is a matter not so much of arms as of money.
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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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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.
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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