"Yet Reason frowns on war's unequal game,Where wasted nations raise a single name,
And mortgaged states their grandsires' wreaths regret,
From age to age in everlasting debt;
From age to age in everlasting debt;
Wreaths which at last the dear-bought right convey
To rust on medals, or on stones decay."
To rust on medals, or on stones decay."
-- Samuel Johnson, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749)
