History of the Peloponnesian War

"That not only our former acts have been honourable, but that we are to fight now also for further honour, men of Syracuse and confederates, the most of you seem to know already; for else you never would so valiantly have undergone it; and if there be any man that is not so sensible of it as he ought, we will make it appear unto him better.

For whereas the Athenians came into this country with design first to enslave Sicily and then, if that succeeded, Peloponnesus and the rest of Greece, and whereas already they had the greatest dominion of any Grecians whatsoever, either present or past, you, the first that ever withstood their navy, wherewith they were everywhere masters, have in the former battles overcome them, and shall in likelihood overcome them again in this.

For men that are cut short where they thought themselves to exceed become afterwards further out of opinion with themselves than they would have been if they had never thought so; and when they come short of their hope in things they glory in, they come short also in courage of the true strength of their forces. And this is likely now to be the case of the Athenians.