"Since the masses of the people are inconstant,……" — Polybius
"Since the masses of the people are inconstant, full of unruly desires, passionate, and reckless of consequences, they must be filled with fears to keep them in order. The ancients did well, therefore, to invent gods, and the belief in punishment after death."
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Polybius
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13 Quotes by Polybius
Polybius has 13 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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Those who know how to win are much more numerous than those who know how to make proper use of…
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From this I conclude that the best education for the situations of actual life consists of the experience we acquire…
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If history is deprived of the Truth, we are left with nothing but an idle, unprofitable tale.
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The particular aspect of history which both attracts and benefits its readers is the examination of causes and the capacity,…
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Monarchy degenerates into tyranny, aristocracy into oligarchy, and democracy into savage violence and chaos.
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For peace, with justice and honor, is the fairest and most profitable of possessions, but with disgrace and shameful cowardice,…
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In our own time the whole of Greece has been subject to a low birth rate and a general decrease…
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The glorious memory of brave men is continually renewed; the fame of those who have performed any noble deed is…
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On any occasion when one can discover the cause of events, one should not resort to the gods.
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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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That historians should give their own country a break, I grant you; but not so as to state things contrary…
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For the mob, habituated to feed at the expense of others, and to have its hopes of a livelihood in…
See all 13 quotes by Polybius »
More Ancients Quotes
This quote is filed under Ancients Quotes,
one of 103 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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The same thing which is now called Christian religion existed among the ancients. They have begun to call 'Christian' the…
— Saint Augustine
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In English we must use adjectives to distinguish the different kinds of love for which the ancients had distinct names.
— Mortimer Adler
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Bacchus, n.: A convenient deity invented by the ancients as an excuse for getting drunk.
— Ambrose Bierce
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There hasn't been a day in my life since I started Latin in ninth grade that I haven't benefited by…
— Rita Mae Brown
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Hold firmly that our faith is identical with that of the ancients. Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of…
— Thomas Aquinas
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The best soldiers are not warlike; the best fighters do not lose their temper. The greatest conquerors are those who…
— Laozi
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Some think that even the ancients who lived long before the present generation, and first framed accounts of the Gods,…
— Mary Hunter Austin
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It were indeed to be wish'd that our art had been less ingenious, in contriving means destructive to mankind; we…
— Herman Boerhaave
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What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.
— Sun Tzu
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The more we know about this universe, the more mysterious it is. The old world that Job knew was marvelous…
— Harry Emerson Fosdick
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Science only means knowledge; and for [Greek] ancients it did only mean knowledge. Thus the favorite science of the Greeks…
— Gilbert K. Chesterton
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Science is one thing, wisdom is another. Science is an edged tool, with which men play like children, and cut…
— Arthur Eddington
See all 103 Ancients Quotes »