Tao Te Ching

“To fear a crowd, and yet to fear solitude, to fear to go unguarded, to fear the very guards themselves; to be unwilling to dispense with an armed escort, and yet to feel displeasure at the sight of one's attendants carrying arms: what a hateful predicament.”

— Xenophon of Athens Ξενοφῶν 1 via Kathleen Freeman
General, Socratic biographer, philosopher
from Hiero