"The particular aspect of history which both attracts……" — Polybius
"The particular aspect of history which both attracts and benefits its readers is the examination of causes and the capacity, which is the reward of this study, to decide in each case the best policy to follow. Now in all political situations we must understand that the principle factor which makes for success or failure is the form of a state's constitution: it is from this source, as if from a fountainhead, that all designs and plans of action not only originate but reach their fulfillment."
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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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Since the masses of the people are inconstant, full of unruly desires, passionate, and reckless of consequences, they must be…
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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…
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More Action Quotes
This quote is filed under Action Quotes,
one of 8,300 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom.
— Hannah Arendt
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Revolutionaries do not make revolutions. The revolutionaries are those who know when power is lying in the street and then…
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Under conditions of tyranny it is far easier to act than to think.
— Hannah Arendt
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Action without a name, a who attached to it, is meaningless.
— Hannah Arendt
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All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.
— Aristotle
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Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate…
— Aristotle
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Well begun is half done.
— Aristotle
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A tragedy is a representation of an action that is whole and complete and of a certain magnitude. A whole…
— Aristotle
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Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.
— Aristotle
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We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action.
— Aristotle
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Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at some good; and for…
— Aristotle
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What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition…
— Aristotle
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