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speculation is carried on in safety, but, when it comes to action, fear causes failure.

Thucydides

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Thucydides
Historian
Failure
Causes
Fear
Comes
Action
Speculation
Carried
Safety

More quotes by Thucydides

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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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The secret of freedom, courage.
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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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The secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom is courage.
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Amassing of wealth is an opportunity for good deeds, not hubris
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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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Hope, danger's comforter
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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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The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Sparta, made war inevitable.
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Human nature is the one constant through human history. It is always there.
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Those who have experienced good and bad luck many times have every reason to be skeptical of successes
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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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Full of hopes beyond their power though not beyond their ambition.
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It must be thoroughly understood that war is a necessity, and that the more readily we accept it,the less will be the ardor of our opponents, and that out of the greatest dangers communities and individuals acquire the greatest glory.
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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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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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Knowledge without understanding is useless.
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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.
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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