For what you hold is, to speak somewhat plainly, a tyranny; to take it perhaps was wrong, but to let it go is unsafe.
Athenian statesman
From Thucydides' 'History of the Peloponnesian War', Pericles' last speech to the Athenians. A slightly different translation, but the same core controversial sentiment.
430 BC (approximate, as recorded by Thucydides)
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