Thucydides (c. 460-400 BCE)
“It is senseless to go against people who, even if conquered, could not be controlled, while failure would leave us much worse off than we were before we made the attempt.”
- From a speech attributed to Nicias in the History of the Peloponnesian War (Book VI, section 11) by Thucydides, translated by Rex Warner (Penguin Classics, 1972).
