Threats alone are the weapons of the threatened man.
 Leonardo da Vinci, The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (1478 – 1519). copy citation

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Author Leonardo da Vinci
Source The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci
Topic threat weapons
Date 1478 – 1519
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Jean Paul Richter in 1888
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5000/pg5000-images.html

Context

“[Footnote 2: The rest of this passage may be rendered in various ways, but none of them give a satisfactory meaning.]
1199.
Fear arises sooner than any thing else.
1200.
Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it.
Threats alone are the weapons of the threatened man. Wherever good fortune enters, envy lays siege to the place and attacks it; and when it departs, sorrow and repentance remain behind.
He who walks straight rarely falls.
It is bad if you praise, and worse if you reprove a thing, I mean, if you do not understand the matter well.
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