Hope is an expensive commodity. It makes better sense to be prepared.

You can now, if you choose, employ your present success to advantage, so as to keep what you have got and gain honour and reputation besides, and you can avoid the mistake of those who meet with an extraordinary piece of good fortune, and are led on by hope to grasp continually at something further, through having already succeeded without expecting it.

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.

We must remember that one man is much the same as another, and that he is best who is trained in the severest school.

Knowledge without understanding is useless.

The secret of happiness is freedom and the secret of freedom is courage.

For men naturally despise those who court them, but respect those who do not give way to them.