“Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men most.”
Epigram wrongly attributed to Thucydides kept in the office of General Powell when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Misattributed
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Colin Powell 63
Former U.S. Secretary of State and retired four-star general 1937Related quotes

Source: The Courage to Be (1952), p. 177
Context: The first element is the experience of the power of being which is present even in the face of the most radical manifestation of non being. If one says that in this experience vitality resists despair, one must add that vitality in man is proportional to intentionality.
The vitality that can stand the abyss of meaninglessness is aware of a hidden meaning within the destruction of meaning.

Source: Liberalism (1911), Chapter II, The Elements of Liberalism, p. 17.
Quoted in Congressional Quarterly's Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court (1979), p. viii.

p, 125
Other writings, The Paradoxes of Legal Science (1928)

As quoted in Essays on Freedom and Power, Introduction, p. xlvii (1949) https://mises.org/sites/default/files/Essays%20on%20Freedom%20and%20Power_3.pdf

1910s, The New Nationalism (1910)

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 85.