DIA 1.2.5, 215

DIA 1.2.5, 190

It has been remarked that when a danger presses, man rarely remains at his habitual level; he elevates himself well above or falls below. So does it happen to peoples themselves. Instead of elevating a nation, extreme perils sometimes succeed in pulling it down; they stir up its passions without guiding them, and far from enlightening its intelligence, cloud it. But it is more common to see, among nations as among men, extraordinary virtue born of the very imminence of danger.