Demosthenes Quotes

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

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

Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.

Success has a great tendency to conceal and throw a veil over the evil deeds of men.

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

Clouds cannot cover secret places, nor denials conceal truth.

Nothing is so easy as to deceive one's self; for what we wish, that we readily believe; but such expectations are often inconsistent with the real state of things.

The best protection for the people is not necessarily to believe everything people tell them.

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.

Nothing is easier than self-deceit.

One believes in what one wants to believe in.

Since we are not yet fully comfortable with the idea that people from the next village are as human as ourselves, it is presumptuous in the extreme to suppose we could ever look at sociable, tool-making creatures who are from other evolutionary paths and see not beasts, but brothers, not rivals, but fellow pilgrims journeying to the shrine of intelligence...The difference... is not in the creature judged, but in the creature judging.

It is not possible to found a lasting power upon injustice, perjury, and treachery. These may, perhaps, succeed for once, and borrow for awhile, from hope, a gay and flourishing appearance. But time betrays their weakness, and they fall into ruin of themselves. For, as in structures of every kind, the lower parts should have the greatest firmness--so the grounds and principles of actions should be just and true.

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

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

By persistent labor man may attain to all excellence.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

The man who flies shall fight again. [Lat., Qui fugiebat, rusus praeliabitur.]

Do you remember that in classical times when Cicero had finished speaking, the people said, "How well he spoke" but when Demosthenes had finished speaking, they said, "Let us march.

The sower of the seed is assuredly the author of the whole harvest of mischief.