Augustus on Risk

"He [Augustus] was wont to say that:"

'a battle or a war ought never to be undertaken unless the hope of gain was greater than the fear of damage; for men who pursue small commodities with no small risk resemble those who fish with a golden hook, for the loss of which, if the line should break, no draught of fish whatsoever could make amends.'

 

[Suetonius, Augustus, 25]