On the Peace (106-110)

But, after all, we should not be surprised that in the past all men have failed to see that this power is the cause of so many ills to those who hold it, nor should we wonder that it has been the bone of contention between us and the Lacedaemonians. For you will find that the great majority of mankind go astray in choosing a course of action and, being possessed of more desires for things evil than for things good, take counsel more in the interest of their foes than of themselves. You can observe this in matters of the greatest importance.

For when has it ever happened otherwise? Did we not choose to pursue a policy in consequence of which the Lacedaemonians became masters of the Hellenes? Did not they, in their turn, manage their supremacy so badly that not many years later we again got the upper hand and became the arbiters of their safety?

Did not the meddlesomeness of the partizans of Athens cause the various states to become partisans of Sparta, and did not the insolence of the partisans of Sparta force these same states to become partisans of Athens? Did not the people themselves, because of the depravity of the popular orators, desire the oligarchy which was established under the Four Hundred? And have not we, all of us, because of the madness of the Thirty,[*] become greater enthusiasts for democracy than those who occupied Phyle?[*]

Indeed in matters of lesser importance and in our everyday life, one could show that the majority take pleasure in the foods and habits which injure both the body and the soul but consider laborious and irksome those from which both sides of our nature would benefit, and that those men are looked upon as austere who remain steadfast in habits which are beneficial.[*]

Since, therefore, in the circumstances in which they live every day and about which they are more directly concerned, men show that they prefer the worse to the better course, how can we be surprised if they lack insight regarding the empire of the sea and make war upon each other to possess a power regarding which they have never reflected in their lives?