Trees, though they are cut and lopped, grow up again quickly, but if men are destroyed, it is not easy to get them again.

The saying contrasts the resilience of nature with the irreversibility of human loss. Trees can be pruned or even cut back and still regenerate; human lives, once taken, cannot be readily “replaced.” Attributed to Pericles, it reflects a statesman’s perspective on war and civic policy: a city’s true strength lies not in timber, walls, or ships but in its people, whose deaths permanently diminish the community’s capacity and memory. The image also functions as a warning against treating soldiers or citizens as expendable resources—material assets may be replenished, but the destruction of human beings carries lasting moral and political costs.