And the rarest dangers are those in which failure brings little loss and success the greatest advantage. - Thucydides

The causes which led to the defections of the allies were of different kinds, the principal being their neglect to pay the tribute or to furnish ships, and, in some cases, failure of military service. For the Athenians were exacting and oppressive, using coercive measures towards men who were neither willing nor accustomed to work hard.

And for various reasons they soon began to prove less agreeable leaders than at first. They no longer fought upon an equality with the rest of the confederates, and they had no difficulty in reducing them when they revolted.

Now the allies brought all this upon themselves; for the majority of them disliked military service and absence from home, and so they agreed to contribute their share of the expense instead of ships. Whereby the Athenian navy was proportionally increased, while they themselves were always untrained and unprepared for war when they revolted.

(Book 1 Chapter 99)

(Pericles:) We ought not to be troubled about them (houses and lands) or to think much of them in comparison; they are only the garden of the house, the superfluous ornament of wealth; and you may be sure that if we cling to our freedom and preserve that, we shall soon enough recover all the rest.But, if we are the servants of others, we shall be sure to lose not only freedom, but all that freedom gives.

(Book 2 Chapter 62.3)

[W]e must make up our minds to look for our protection not to legal terrors but to careful administration.