Book 6
18.4
And you cannot regard a pacific policy in the same light as other states might, unless you will change your practices also to correspond with theirs.The other Hellenic states, it would seem, were preaching the doctrine of non-interference or self-determination; Athens, according to Alcibiades, cannot accept this doctrine without accepting the consequences and relinquishing her empire.“Calculating, then, that we shall rather strengthen our power here if we go over there, let us make the voyage, that we may lay low the haughty spirit of the Peloponnesians, as we shall if we let men see that in contempt of our present peaceful conditionWhich was in reality an armed truce renewable every ten days. we even sail against Sicily;
18.5
and that we may, at the same time, either acquire empire over all Hellas, as in all probability we shall, when the Hellenes there have been added to us, or may at least cripple the Syracusans, whereby both ourselves and our allies will be benefited.
18.6
And as to safety—both to remain, if things go well, and to come away—our ships will provide that; for we shall be masters of the sea even against all the Siceliots combined. And let not the policy of inaction that Nicias proposes, or his putting the younger at variance with the older men, divert you from your purpose; but in our usual good order, just as our fathers, young men taking counsel with older men, raised our power to its present height, do you now also in the same way strive to advance the state. And consider that youth and age without one another avail nothing, but that the simple, the mediocre, and the very subtle tempered together will have most strength; and that the state, if she remain at peace, will, like anything else, wear herself out upon herself, and her skill in all pursuits will grow old; whereas, if she is continually at conflict, she will always be adding to her experience, and will acquire more, not in word but in deed, the habit of defending herself.
