History of the Peloponnesian War

For they esteem him a friend who assists them, even though he may before have been an enemy; and him a foe who opposes them, though he may have happened to be a friend; nay they even mismanage their own affairs for the sake of their animosity at the moment.

"Thinking then of these things, and each younger man having learned them from some one older, let him resolve to requite us with the like, and not deem that these things are justly urged, but that others are expedient in case of his going to war.

For expediency most attends that line of conduct in which one does least wrong. And as for the [*]( Referring to these words of the Corcyraeans, ὅταν ἐς τὸν μέλλοντα καὶὅσον οὐ παρόντα πόλεμον τὸ αὐτίκα περισκοπῶν ἐνδοιάζῃ χωρίον προοσλαβεῖν κ. τ. λ. Chap. 36. 1.) coming of the war, frightening you with which the Corcyrraeans bid you commit injustice, it lies as yet in uncertainty; and it is not worth while, through being excited by it, to incur a certain enmity with the Corinthians, immediate, and not coming; but rather it were prudent to remove somewhat of our before existing suspicion on account of the Megareans.