Most people, in fact, will not take the trouble in finding out the truth, but are much more inclined to accept the first story they hear. - Thucydides

and when he did come they had no walls to stop him),

The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest;

Think, too, of the great part that is played by the unpredictable in war: think of it now, before you are actually comitted to war. The longer a war lasts, the more things tend to depend on accidents. Neither you nor we can see into them: we have to abide their outcome in the dark. And when people are entering upon a war they do things the wrong way round. Action comes first, and it is only when they have already suffered that they begin to think.