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Men do not rest content with parrying the attacks of a superior, but often strike the first blow to prevent the attack being made.

Thucydides

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Thucydides
Historian
Often
Superior
Firsts
Prevent
First
Superiors
Made
Attack
Men
Strikes
Content
Blow
Attacks
Rest
Strike

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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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Now the only sure basis of an alliance is for each party to be equally afraid of the other
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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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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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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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...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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Stories happen to those who tell them.
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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.
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Most people, in fact, will not take the trouble in finding out the truth, but are much more inclined to accept the first story they hear.
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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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It is men who make a city, not walls or ships.
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In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours.
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Mankind apparently find it easier to drive away adversity than to retain prosperity.
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The secret of freedom, courage.
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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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speculation is carried on in safety, but, when it comes to action, fear causes failure.
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I have often before now been convinced that a democracy is incapable of empire.
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Knowledge without understanding is useless.
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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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