Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.
DemosthenesRead
Beware lest in your anxiety to avoid war you obtain a master
Interpretation
Be careful in trying to prevent conflict, as it may lead to a loss of freedom.
This quote by Demosthenes warns against the dangers of excessive caution in avoiding war. In the quest for peace and the avoidance of conflict, there is a risk of submitting to oppression or tyrannical control, effectively becoming a masterβs servant rather than maintaining one's autonomy.
In practice
In a debate on national security, one might use this quote to illustrate the risks of compromising individual freedoms.
Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.
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Success has a great tendency to conceal and throw a veil over the evil deeds of men.
A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.
Nothing is so easy as to deceive oneself; for what we wish, we readily believe.
Close alliances with despots are never safe for free states.
He thought that I was after him for a feather--- The white one in his tail: like one who takes everything said as personal to himself.
Clever gimmicks of mass distraction yield a cheap soulcraft of addicted and self-medicated narcissists.
A society that does not value its older people denies its roots and endangers its future. Let us strive to enhance their capacity to support themselves for as long as possible and, when they cannot do so anymore, to care for them.
No one can argue any longer about the rights of women. It's like arguing about earthquakes.
Ignorance is an evil weed, which dictators may cultivate among their dupes, but which no democracy can afford among its citizens.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
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