Isocrates On the Peace 69

[69] At that time, then, we recognized the principle that it is not just for the stronger to rule over the weaker, ¹ even as now we recognize it in the nature of the polity which has been established amongst ourselves. But that we could not, if we would, attain to this empire by conquest I think I shall quickly prove. For when, with the help of ten thousand talents, ² we were not able to retain it, how can we acquire it in our present state of poverty, especially since we are now addicted, not to the ways of life by which we gained it, but to those by which we lost it?