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Thucydides quotes - page 4
The real cause I consider to be the one which was formerly most kept out of sight. The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired the Lacedaemon, made war inevitable.
Thucydides
he who voluntarily confronts tremendous odds must have very great internal resources to draw upon.
Thucydides
Fire signals of an attack were also raised toward Thebes, but the Plataeans in the city at once displayed a number of others, prepared beforehand for this very purpose, in order to render the enemy's signals unintelligible, and to prevent his friends from getting a true idea of what was happening and coming to his aid before their comrades who had gone out should have made good their escape and be in safety.
Thucydides
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 when they can, and the weak grant what they must.
Thucydides
The sufferings that fate inflicts on us should be borne with patience, what enemies inflict with manly courage.
Thucydides
Again, in our enterprises we present the singular spectacle of daring and deliberation, each carried to its highest point, and both united in the same persons; although usually decision is the fruit of ignorance, hesitation of reflection.
Thucydides
Ignorance produces rashness, reflection timidity.
Thucydides
The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.
Thucydides
We should remember that one man is much the same as another, and that he is best who is trained in the severest school.
Thucydides
We Greeks are lovers of the beautiful, yet simple in our tastes, and we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness.
Thucydides
Few things are brought to a successful issue by impetuous desire, but most by calm and prudent forethought.
Thucydides
Men's indignation, it seems, is more excited by legal wrong than by violent wrong; the first looks like being cheated by an equal, the second like being compelled by a superior.
Thucydides
Again, in our enterprises we present the singular spectacle of daring and deliberation, each carried to its highest point, and both united in the same persons; although usually decision is the fruit of ignorance, hesitation of reflection. But the palm of courage will surely be adjudged most justly to those, who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger. In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours.
Thucydides
Knowledge without understanding is useless.
Thucydides
Love of power, operating through greed and through personal ambition, was the cause of all these evils.
Thucydides
Amassing of wealth is an opportunity for good deeds, not hubris.
Thucydides
And where the rewards for merit are greatest, there are found the best citizens.
Thucydides
The strength of an Army lies in strict discipline and undeviating obedience to its officers.
Thucydides
The peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learned to cultivate the olive and the vine.
Thucydides
For men naturally despise those who court them, but respect those who do not give way to them.
Thucydides
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. On the one hand, the friend who is familiar with every fact of the story may think that some point has not been set forth with that fullness which he wishes and knows it to deserve; on the other, he who is a stranger to the matter may be led by envy to suspect exaggeration if he hears anything above his own nature. 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.
Thucydides
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