But it takes a brave and resolute spirit not to be disconcerted in times of difficulty or ruffled and thrown off one's feet, as the saying is, but to keep one's presence of mind and one's self-possession and not to swerve from the path of reason.
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[80]
And so
diplomacy in the friendly settlement of controversies
is more desirable than courage in settling them on
the battlefield; but we must be careful not to take
that course merely for the sake of avoiding war
rather than for the sake of public expediency. War,
however, should be undertaken in such a way as to
make it evident that it has no other object than to
secure peace.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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