repeating history

"We have learned, a little late no doubt, that for states as for
individuals real wealth consists not in acquiring or invading the
domains of others, but in developing one's own. We have learned that
all extensions of territory, all usurpations, by force or by fraud,
which have long been connected by prejudice with the idea of 'rank,'
of 'hegemony,' of 'political stability,' of 'superiority' in the order
of the Powers, are only the cruel jests of political lunacy, false
estimates of power, and that their real effect is to increase the
difficulty of administration and to diminish the happiness and
security of the governed for the passing interest or for the vanity of
those who govern..." Talleyrand 1754-1838