Now if a man thus favoured died as he has lived, he will be just the one you are looking for: the only sort of person who deserves to be called happy. But mark this: until he is dead, keep the word "happy" in reserve. Till then, he is not happy, but only lucky...

If an important decision is to be made, they [the Persians] discuss the question when they are drunk, and the following day the master of the house where the discussion was held submits their decision for reconsideration when they are sober. If they still approve it, it is adopted; if not, it is abandoned. Conversely, any decision they make when they are sober, is reconsidered afterwards when they are drunk.

The purpose is to prevent the traces of human events from being erased by time...

οὕτω ὦν Κροῖσε πᾶν ἐστι ἄνθρωπος συμφορή.""You can see from that, Croesus, that man is entirely a creature of chance” (Trans. de Sélincourt)

Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these defects.