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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
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More quotes by Thucydides
Abstinence from all injustice to other first-rate powers is a greater tower of strength than anything that can be gained by the sacrifice of permanent tranquillity for an apparent temporary advantage.
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I have often before now been convinced that a democracy is incapable of empire.
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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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Knowledge without understanding is useless.
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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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Stories happen to those who tell them.
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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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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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Hope, danger's comforter
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It is useless to attack men who could not be controlled even if conquered, while failure would leave us in an even worse position.
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Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men most.
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... Athenians are addicted to innovation. They are daring beyond their judgment they toil on with little opportunity for enjoying, being ever engaged in getting, they were born into the world to take no rest themselves, and to give none to others.
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The secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom is courage.
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Wealth to us is not mere material for vainglory but an opportunity for achievement and poverty we think it no disgrace to acknowledge but a real degredation to make no effort to overcome.
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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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The secret of freedom, courage.
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We must not disguise from ourselves that we go to found a city among strangers and enemies, and he who undertakes such an enterprise should be prepared to become master of the country the first day he lands, or failing in this find everything hostile to him.
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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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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.
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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
