Athens' biggest worry was the sheer recklessness of its own democratic government. A simple majority of the citizenry, urged on and incensed by clever demagogues, might capriciously send out military forces in unnecessary and exhausting adventures.

For so remarkably perverse is the nature of man that he despises whoever courts him, and admires whoever will not bend before him.

It is a general rule of human nature that people despise those who treat them well, and look up to those who make no concessions.

Remember that this greatness was won by men with courage, with knowledge of their duty, and with a sense of honor in action.

I think the two things most opposed to good counsel are haste and passion; haste usaully goes hand in hand with folly, passion with coarseness and narrowness of mind.

He who graduates the harshest school, succeeds.

When one is deprived of ones liberty, one is right in blaming not so much the man who puts the shackles on as the one who had the power to prevent him, but did not use it.