[b]Thucydides
…a collision at sea will ruin your entire day…[/b]
Though not just at sea.
Mankind are tolerant of the praises of others as long as each hearer thinks that he can do as well or nearly as well himself, but, when the speaker rises above him, jealousy is aroused and he begins to be incredulous.
And not just in the Oval Office.
My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the needs of an immediate public, but was done to last forever.
And who doesn’t think that? Here for example.
Think, too, of the great part that is played by the unpredictable in war: think of it now, before you are actually comitted to war. The longer a war lasts, the more things tend to depend on accidents. Neither you nor we can see into them: we have to abide their outcome in the dark. And when people are entering upon a war they do things the wrong way round. Action comes first, and it is only when they have already suffered that they begin to think.
Still, a buck’s a buck.
It is frequently a misfortune to have very brilliant men in charge of affairs. They expect too much of ordinary men.
Anyone think this is the problem that we’ve got?
It is useless to attack a man who could not be controlled even if conquered, while failure would leave us in an even worse position.
In other words, we’re fucked. Of course we’ll need to know who the man is.