Areopagiticus (5-8)

so that it is hard to decide which of these lots one should prefer to bequeath to one’s own children. For we shall find that from a lot which seems to be inferior men’s fortunes generally advance to a better condition,[*] whereas from one which appears to be superior they are wont to change to a worse.

Of this truth I might cite examples without number from the lives of individual men, since these are subject to the most frequent vicissitudes; but instances which are more important and better known to my hearers may be drawn from the experiences of our city and of the Lacedaemonians. As for the Athenians, after our city had been laid waste by the barbarians, we became, because we were anxious about the future and gave attention to our affairs, the foremost of the Hellenes;[*] whereas, when we imagined that our power was invincible, we barely escaped being enslaved.[*]

Likewise the Lacedaemonians, after having set out in ancient times from obscure and humble cities, made themselves, because they lived temperately and under military discipline, masters of the Peloponnesus;[*] whereas later, when they grew overweening and seized the empire both of the sea and of the land, they fell into the same dangers as ourselves.[*]

Whoever, therefore, knowing that such great vicissitudes have taken place and that such mighty powers have been so quickly brought to naught, yet trusts in our present circumstances, is all too foolish,[*] especially since Athens is now in a much less favorable condition than she was at that time, while the hatred[*] of us among the Hellenes and the enmity[*] of the great King, which then brought disaster to our arms, have been again revived.