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Being a good leader Quotes by Polybius

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A good general not only sees the way to victory; he also knows when victory is impossible.

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In our own time the whole of Greece has been subject to a low birth rate and a general decrease of the population, owing to which cities have become deserted and the land has ceased to yield fruit, although there have neither been continuous wars nor epidemics...For as men had fallen into such a state of pretentiousness, avarice, and indolence…

A good general not only sees the way to victory; he also knows when victory is impossible.

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The common people feel themselves oppressed by the grasping of some, and their vanity is flattered by others. Fired with evil passions, they are no longer willing to submit to control, but demand that everything be subject to their authority. The invariable result is that government assumes the noble names of free and popular, but becomes in fact the most…

The government will take the fairest of names, but the worst of realities--mob rule.

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Nor ought we ever to allow any growing power to acquire such a degree of strength as to be able to tear from us,…

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From this I conclude that the best education for the situations of actual life consists of the experience we acquire from the study of…

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Monarchy degenerates into tyranny, aristocracy into oligarchy, and democracy into savage violence and chaos.

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Knowing how to win is the first step. We must also know how to make use of our victories.

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When the ancients said a work well begun was half done, they meant to impress the importance of always endeavoring to make a good…

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“They want the centurions not so much to be venturesome and daredevils, as to be natural leaders, of a steady and reliable spirit. They…

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“At the sight of the city utterly perishing amidst the flames Scipio burst into tears, and stood long reflecting on the inevitable change which awaits cities, nations, and dynasties, one and all, as it does every one of us men. This, he thought, had befallen Ilium, once a powerful city, and the once mighty empires of the Assyrians, Medes, Persians,…

[There can be no] rational administration of government when good men are held in the same esteem as bad ones.

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