To Nicocles (23-24)

Deliver your citizens from their many fears, and be not willing that dread should beset men who have done no wrong; for even as you dispose others toward you, so you will feel toward them. Do nothing in anger, but simulate anger when the occasion demands it. Show yourself stern by overlooking nothing which men do, but kind by making the punishment less than the offense.

Be not willing to show your authority by harshness or by undue severity in punishment, but by causing your subjects one and all to defer to your judgement and to believe that your plans for their welfare are better than their own. Be warlike in your knowledge of war and in your preparations for it, but peaceful in your avoidance of all unjust aggression.[*] Deal with weaker states as you would expect stronger states to deal with you.[*]