(no subject)

[timelets]

In fact, educationally speaking, this will prove to be the most important aspect of my work, now and in the future. For neither rulers nor those who express opinions about them should think of victory and overall dominion as the goal of military action. It makes as little sense for a man to fight others just to crush them as it does for a man to take to the open sea just to cross it. [3.4].

...

...the considerable difference, between a starting point and a cause or pretext. A cause or pretext always comes first and a starting point comes last. I take it that the starting point of anything consists of the first application in the real world of a course of action that has already been decided upon, while the cause is what first influences one’s judgements and decisions, or, in other words, what first influences one’s ideas, feelings, reasoning about the matter, and all one’s decision-making and deliberative faculties. [3.6]

--- Polybius, The Histories.