That sense – the only true patriotism – comes slowly and springs from the heart: it is founded upon respect for the family and love for the soil. Premature ‘liberty’ of this kind would have been a disaster: we should have been torn to pieces by petty squabbles before we had ever reached political maturity, which, as things were, as made possible by the long quiet years under monarchical government; for it was that government which, as it were, nursed our strength and enabled us ultimately to produce sound fruit from liberty, as only a politically adult nation can.

Envy is blind. -Caeca invidia est

This was the Athenians' war against the King of Macedon, a war of words. Words are the only weapons the Athenians have left.

Great contests generally excite great animosities.

Prosperity engenders sloth.

Nowhere are our calculations more frequently upset than in war.

This above all makes history useful and desirable; it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.