Quotes from Demosthenes

Beware lest in your anxiety to avoid war you obtain a master

Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.

Excessive dealings with tyrants are not good for the security of free states.

The end of wisdom is consultation and deliberation.

It is impossible for men engaged in low and groveling pursuits to have noble and generous sentiments. A man's thought must always follow his employment.

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.

What a man wishes, he will believe.

It is the natural disposition of all men to listen with pleasure to abuse and slander of their neighbour, and to hear with impatience those who utter praises of 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.

As a vessel is known by the sound, whether it be cracked or not; so men are proved, by their speeches, whether they be wise or foolish.

By persistent labor man may attain to all excellence.

The more able a man is, if he make ill use of his abilities, the more dangerous will he be to the commonwealth.

To remind a man of the good turns you have done him is very much like a reproach.

Close alliances with despots are never safe for free states.

All speech is vain and empty unless it be accompanied by action.

No man who is not willing to help himself has any right to apply to his friends, or to the gods.

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

We have mistresses for pleasure, concubines to care for our daily bodys needs and wives to bear us legitimate children and to be faithful guardians of our households.