In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours.
ThucydidesWhen one is deprived of ones liberty, one is right in blaming not so much the man who puts the shackles on as the one who had the power to prevent him, but did not use it.
ThucydidesFor if many ill-conceived plans have succeeded through the still greater lack of judgment of an opponent, many more, apparently well laid, have on the contrary ended in disgrace. The confidence with which we form our schemes is never completely justified in their execution; speculation is carried on in safety, but, when it comes to action, fear causes failure.
ThucydidesPeople get into the habit of entrusting the things they desire to wishful thinking, and subjecting things they don't desire to exhaustive thinking
Thucydides