History of the Peloponnesian War

"That our former achievements have been glorious ones, Syracusans and allies, and that this struggle will be for glorious results in future, most of you seem to us to be aware, (for you would not else have devoted yourselves so eagerly to it,) and if any one is not as sensible of it as he ought to be, we will prove it to him.

For when the Athenians had come to this country, for the subjugation of Sicily in the first place, and then, if they succeeded, for that of the Peloponnese also, and the rest of Greece; and when they possessed the largest empire enjoyed hitherto, either by Greeks of former times or of the present, you were the first men in the world who withstood their navy, with which they had borne down every thing, and have already conquered them in some sea-fights, and will now, in all probability, conquer them in this.

For when men have been put down in that in which they claim to excel, their opinion of themselves in future is far lower than if they had never entertained such an idea at first; and failing through the disappointment of their boasting, they give way even beyond the degree of their power. And such, probably, is now the feeling of the Athenians.