History of the Peloponnesian War

Again, they are adventurous beyond their power, and daring beyond their judgment, and in danger they are sanguine; your wont is to attempt less than is justified by your power, to mistrust even what is sanctioned by your judgment, and to fancy that from danger there is no release.

Further, there is promptitude on their side against procrastination on yours; they are never at home, you are never from it: for they hope by their absence to extend their acquisitions, you fear by your advance to endanger what you have left behind.

They are swift to follow up a success, and slow to recoil from a reverse.

Their bodies they spend ungrudgingly in their country's cause; their intellect they jealously husband to be employed in her service.