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Full of hopes beyond their power though not beyond their ambition.

Thucydides

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Thucydides
Historian
Ambition
Beyond
Full
Though
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Hopes

More quotes by Thucydides

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If it had not been for the pernicious power of envy, men would not so have exalted vengeance above innocence and profit above justice... in these acts of revenge on others, men take it upon themselves to begin the process of repealing those general laws of humanity which are there to give a hope of salvation to all who are in distress.
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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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It is from the greatest dangers that the greatest glory is to be won.
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Three of the gravest failings, want of sense, of courage, or of vigilance.
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The secret of freedom, courage.
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.
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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.
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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.
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Knowledge without understanding is useless.
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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.
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It is men who make a city, not walls or ships.
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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.
Thucydides
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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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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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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.
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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For men naturally despise those who court them, but respect those who do not give way to them.
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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I have often before now been convinced that a democracy is incapable of empire.
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