History of the Peloponnesian War

But if both should happen to have chosen the wrong moment for acting in this way, advice to make peace would not be unserviceable;

and this, if we did but see it, is just what we stand most in need of at the present juncture.I suppose that no one will dispute that we went to war at first, in order to serve our own several interests, that we are now, in view of the same interests, debating how we can make peace; and that if we separate without having as we think our rights, we shall go to war again.