History of the Peloponnesian War

What a war then will this of ours be? For unless we have the better of them in shipping or take from them their revenue whereby their navy is maintained, we shall do the most hurt to ourselves.

And in this case to let fall the war again will be no honour for us when we are chiefly thought to have begun it.

As for the hope that if we waste their country, the war will soon be at an end, let that never lift us up; for I fear we shall transmit it rather to our children. For it is likely the Athenians have the spirit not to be slaves to their earth, nor as men without experience to be astonished at the war.