Feeding the Crocodile

On the paying of tribute to one's enemies:

Winston Churchill:
“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.”

Overheard in the House of Commons during the debate on the Belfast Agreement:

"...as we have seen, Danegeld has been paid, and the thing about Danegeld is that one keeps on having to pay it. Concession after concession has been made. What will be the next one?"

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And from Kipling, in the days of sterner men:

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,

For fear they should succumb and go astray;

So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,

You will find it better policy to say: --

"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,

No matter how trifling the cost;

For the end of that game is oppression and shame,

And the nation that pays it is lost!"