History of the Peloponnesian War

​And recognize this also by looking at our present misfortunes, we who, possessing the greatest prestige among the Hellenes, have come to you, though formerly we thought ourselves more authorized to bestow those very things for which we have now come to petition you.

​And yet we suffered this neither from lack of power, nor because we grew insolent when greater power was added to us, but because we erred in judgment while relying on what we always possessed—a liability which is equally common to all.

​So it is not reasonable for you to think, because of the present strength of your city and your recent acquisitions, that fortune will also always be on your side.

​Indeed, it is the mark of wise men to secure their advantages safely as something unstable (and such men would also face misfortunes more prudently), and to consider that war is not something that one can engage with only so far as one wishes to handle a part of it, but that it goes as fortunes lead it; and such men, stumbling least of all because they do not elevate themselves by trusting in the successful parts of war, would make peace especially while they are still successful.

​This is what you, O Athenians, now have a fine opportunity to do in relation to us, so that you may not later, if you should fail through not being persuaded—as may easily happen in many ways—be thought to have achieved even your present successes by mere chance, when you had it in your power to leave behind a secure reputation for strength and wisdom for the future.