“when the strong and successful are highly rated, they can then be contrasted with those who possess the virtue of phronesis, wisdom, who live sub specie mortis and act with the Last Judgment in mind. When statesmen are praised for having made their people great and powerful, as Themistocles and Pericles had made in Athens, Plato can confront them with the moral decline that was the result of their policies.”

-Eric Voegelin-