Book 3
4.12
Don’t look down on business men, Nicomachides. For the management of private concerns differs only in point of number from that of public affairs. In other respects they are much alike, and particularly in this, that neither can be carried on without men, and the men employed in private and public transactions are the same. For those who take charge of public affairs employ just the same men when they attend to their own; and those who understand how to employ them are successful directors of public and private concerns, and those who do not, fail in both.
5.1
Once when talking with the son of the great Pericles, he said: For my part, Pericles, I feel hopeful that, now you have become general, our city will be more efficient and more famous in the art of war, and will defeat our enemies.I could wish, answered Pericles, that it might be as you say, Socrates; but how these changes are to come about I cannot see.Should you like to discuss them with me, then, said Socrates, and consider how they can be brought about?I should.
5.2
Do you know then, that in point of numbers the Athenians are not inferior to the Boeotians?Yes, I know.Do you think that the larger number of fine, well-developed men could be selected from among the Boeotians or the Athenians?In that matter too they seem to be at no disadvantage.Which do you think are the more united?The Athenians, I should say, for many of the Boeotians resent the selfish behaviour of the Thebans. At Athens I see nothing of that sort.
5.3
And again, the Athenians are more ambitious and more high-minded than other peoples; and these qualities are among the strongest incentives to heroism and patriotic self-sacrifice.Yes, in these respects too the Athenians need not fear criticism.And besides, none have inherited a past more crowded with great deeds; and many are heartened by such a heritage and encouraged to care for virtue and prove their gallantry.All you have said is true, Socrates.
