Quotes from Demosthenes

We need money, for sure, Athenians, and without money nothing can be done that ought to be done.

It is not possible to found a lasting power upon injustice, perjury, and treachery.

Good fortune is the greatest of blessings, but good counsel comes next, and the lack of it destroys the other also.

Everything great is not always good, but all good things, are great.

Nothing is so easy as to deceive oneself; for what we wish, we readily believe.

He who confers a favor should at once forget it, if he is not to show a sordid ungenerous spirit. To remind a man of a kindness conferred and to talk of it, is little different from reproach.

Nothing is easier than self-deceit.

The readiest and surest way to get rid of censure, is to correct ourselves.

A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.

Every advantage in the past is judged in the light of the final issue.

Every dictator is an enemy of freedom, an opponent of law.

I decline to buy repentance at the cost of ten thousand drachmas.

Great and unexpected successes are often the cause of foolish rushing into acts of extravagance.

He who confers a favor should at once forget it, if he is not to show a sordid ungenerous spirit. To remind a man of a kindness conferred and to talk of it, is little different from reproach.

He who receives a favour must retain a recollection of it for all time to come; but he who confers should at once forget it, if he is not to show a sordid and ungenerous spirit. To remind a man of a kindness conferred on him, and to talk of it, is little different from a reproach.

The easiest thing of all is to deceive one's self for what a man wishes he generally believes to be true.

The fact speak for themselves.

The man who has received a benefit ought always to remember it, but he who has granted it ought to forget the fact at once.

The man who is in the highest state of prosperity, and who thinks his fortune is most secure, knows not if it will remain unchanged till the evening.

There are all kinds of devices invented for the protection and preservation of countries: defensive barriers, forts, trenches, and the like... But prudent minds have as a natural gift one safeguard which is the common possession of all, and this applies especially to the dealings of democracies. What is this safeguard? Skepticism. This you must preserve. This you must retain. If you can keep this, you need fear no harm.

There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies against despots -- suspicion.

What we have in us of the image of God is the love of truth and justice.

You cannot have a proud and chivalrous spirit if your conduct is mean and paltry for whatever a man's actions are, such must be his spirit.

Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what every man wishes, that he also believes to be true.