We are all sensible that the king and Tisaphernes have caused as many of us as they could to be apprehended, and it is plain they design, by the same treacherous means, if they can, to destroy the rest.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the treachery and danger posed by those in power, suggesting that their intentions are often harmful and deceitful.
Xenophon's quote reflects on the treachery of those in positions of authority, like kings and powerful leaders, who may conspire to eliminate opposition and maintain control. It serves as a reminder of the fragility of freedom and the potential for betrayal in political contexts, where the intentions of leaders can lead to the undoing of those they lead.
In practice
In a discussion about political ethics, this quote can illustrate the dangers of unchecked power.
Those men who, in war, seek to preserve their lives at any rate commonly die with shame and ignominy, while those who look upon death as common to all, and unavoidable, and are only solicitous to die with honour, oftener arrive at old age and, while they live, live happier.
You see that even the enemy did not dare to declare war against us till they had seized our generals, for they were sensible that, while we had commanders and yielded obedience to them, we were able to conquer them; but, having seized our commanders, they concluded that we should, from a want of command and discipline, be destroyed.
You know that neither numbers nor strength give the victory, but that side which, with the assistance of the gods, attacks with the greatest resolution is generally irresistible.
There is small risk a general will be regarded with contempt by those he leads, if, whatever he may have to preach, he shows himself best able to perform.
Let a man sow a field or plant a farm never so well, yet he cannot foretell who will gather in the fruits; another may build him a house of fairest proportion, yet he knows not who will inhabit it.
For what the horse does under compulsion, as Simon also observes, is done without understanding; and there is no beauty in it either, any more than if one should whip and spur a dancer.
Though why should we expect age to mellow us? If it isn't life's business to reward merit, why should it be life's business to give us warm comfortable feelings towards its end? What possible evolutionary purpose could nostalgia serve?
What does all this stuff about flying saucers amount to? What can it mean? What is the truth?
We must rekindle the fire of idealism in our society, for nothing suffocates the promise of America more than unbounded cynicism and indifference.
At the lowest cognitive level, they are processes of experiencing, or, to speak more generally, processes of intuiting that grasp the object in the original.
The available worlds looked pretty grim. They had little to offer him because he had little to offer them. He had been extremely chastened to realize that although he originally came from a world which had cars and computers and ballet and Armagnac, he didn't, by himself, know how any of it worked. He couldn't do it. Left to his own devices he couldn't build a toaster. He could just about make a sandwich and that was it.
War is a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle; therefore they take boys from one village and another village, stick them into uniforms, equip them with guns, and let them loose like wild beasts against one other.
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