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

Thucydides

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Thucydides
Historian
Apparently
Adversity
Prosperity
Drive
Mankind
Easier
Away
Find
Retain

More quotes by Thucydides

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I think the two things most opposed to good counsel are haste and passion haste usaully goes hand in hand with folly, passion with coarseness and narrowness of mind.
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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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Now the only sure basis of an alliance is for each party to be equally afraid of the other
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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
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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.
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Amassing of wealth is an opportunity for good deeds, not hubris
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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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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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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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The whole earth is the sepulchre of famous men.
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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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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.
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speculation is carried on in safety, but, when it comes to action, fear causes failure.
Thucydides
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We secure our friends not by accepting favours but by doing them.
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As for democracy, the men of sense among us knew what it was, and I perhaps as well as any, as I have more cause to complain of it but there is nothing new to be said of a patent absurdity-meanwhile we did not think it safe to alter it under the pressure of your hostility.
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When will there be justice in Athens? There will be justice in Athens when those who are not injured are as outraged as those who are.
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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Indeed it is generally the case that men are readier to call rogues clever than simpletons honest, and are ashamed of being the second as they are proud of being the first.
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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He passes through life most securely who has least reason to reproach himself with complaisance toward his enemies.
Thucydides