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17“In addition to these considerations, numerous and important as they are, I hesitate on general principles to add anything personal concerning myself by way of boasting; yet since this, too, is one of the factors which contribute to victory in war, and in the opinion of all men is of supreme importance,—I mean that men who are to wage war successfully must also have an excellent general,— 2necessity itself has rendered quite inevitable what I shall say about myself, in order that you may realize even better than you do this truth, that you yourselves are the kind of soldiers that could win even without a good leader, and that I am the kind of leader that could prevail even with poor soldiers. 3For I am at that age when men are at their very prime, both in body and in mind, and are hampered neither by the rashness of youth nor by the slackness of old age, but are at their strongest, because they occupy the mean between these two extremes. 4Moreover, I have the advantage of such natural gifts and of such a training that I can with the greatest ease make the right decision in every case and give it utterance. As regards experience, which, as you know, causes even the ignorant and the uneducated to appear to be of some value, I have been acquiring that through my whole political and my whole military career. 5For from boyhood down to the present moment I have continually trained myself in these matters; I have been ruled much and have ruled much, and thereby I have learned, on the one hand, all the tasks of whatever kind the leader must impose, and, on the other, all the duties of whatever kind the subordinate must obediently perform. I have known fear, I have known confidence; 6thereby I have schooled myself, through the one, not to be afraid of anything too readily, and, through the other, not to venture on any hazard too heedlessly. I have known good fortune, I have known failure; consequently I am able to avoid both despair and excess of pride.
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