Apophthegmata Laconica

Lysander, who was a clever quibbler, and given to employing cunning deceptions to further most of his designs, counted justice as mere expediency, and honour as that which is advantageous. He said that the truth is better than falsehood, but that the worth and value of either is determined by the use to which it is put. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Lysander, chap. vii. (437 A).)

In answer to those who blamed him because of his carrying out most of his designs through deception, which they said was unworthy of Heracles [*](The legendary ancestor of both lines of Spartan kings; Cf. Herodotus, vii. 204 and viii. 131.) and gaining his successes by wile in no straightforward way, he said laughing that where he could not get on with the lion’s skin it must be pieced out with the skin of the fox. [*](Cf. the note on Moralia, 190 E (2), supra. )