Plato, Letters 353d

δʼ ἐννοεῖν ὑμᾶς ἀμφοτέρους χρεὼν καὶ ἀναμιμνῄσκεσθαι ποσάκις ἐν ἐλπίδι ἑκάτεροι γεγόνατε τοῦ νῦν οἴεσθαι σχεδὸν ἀεί τινος σμικροῦ ἐπιδεεῖς εἶναι τὸ μὴ πάντα κατὰ νοῦν πράττειν, καὶ δὴ καὶ ὅτι τὸ σμικρὸν τοῦτο μεγάλων καὶ μυρίων κακῶν αἴτιον ἑκάστοτε συμβαίνει γιγνόμενον, καὶ πέρας οὐδέν ποτε τελεῖται, συνάπτει δὲ ἀεὶ παλαιὰ τελευτὴ δοκοῦσα ἀρχῇ φυομένῃ νέᾳ, διολέσθαι δʼ ὑπὸ τοῦ κύκλου

and remember how many times each party has hopefully imagined that it lacked but a little of achieving complete success almost every time; and, what is more, that it is precisely this little deficiency which is always turning out to be the cause of great and numberless evils. And of these evils no limit is ever reached, but what seems to be the end of the old is always being linked on to the beginning of a new brood; and because of this endless chain of evil