The disgrace of hurling yourself into combat that accomplishes nothing

For it is equally disgraceful, when your enemies threaten on every side, not to prove yourself superior to all the rest, and, when no urgent need has arisen, to hurl yourself into combats of such a kind that, if you succeeded, you would have accomplished nothing of importance. Isocrates. Ad Philippum. Section 2.

Image: Detail of Tapestry depicting the Sea Battle between Constantine I and Licinius by Pietro da Cartona Italian 1635 CE wool and silk photographed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.