Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men most.

The peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learned to cultivate the olive and the vine.

Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, he began at the moment that it broke out, believing that it would be a great war, and more memorable than any that had preceded it.

It is a common mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong end, to act first, and wait for disasters to discuss the matter.

Three of the gravest failings, want of sense, of courage, or of vigilance.

For men can endure to hear others praised only so long as they can severally persuade themselves of their own ability to equal the actions recounted: when this point is passed, envy comes in and with it incredulity.

Abstinence from all injustice to other first-rate powers is a greater tower of strength than anything that can be gained by the sacrifice of permanent tranquillity for an apparent temporary advantage.