The Republic

But I observed that even the good artisans fell into the same error as the poets;—because they were good workmen they thought that they also knew all sorts of high matters, and this defect in them overshadowed their wisdom;

É a relação das coisas, e não dos homens, queconstitui a guerra, e como o estado de guerra não pode nascer de simples relações pessoais, mas unicamente de relações reais, a guerra privada, ou de homem contra homem, não pode existir, nem no estado natural, em que não há nenhuma propriedade constante, nem no estado social, em que tudo se encontra sob

virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man, public as well as private.

Athenians were not rational at all, merely selfish and shrewd. What guided their decisions was their base emotions—hunger for power, attention, and money. And for those purposes they could be very tactical and clever, but none of their maneuvers led to anything that lasted or served the overall interests of the democracy.