[5]
Now if, putting these
considerations aside, you would examine the real problem, whether it is more
advantageous that you should possess the power of bestowing this privilege, even
though you are sometimes duped into bestowing it on a scoundrel, or that by
being wholly dispossessed of it you should be unable to grant honors even where
they are deserved, you would find the former course the more advantageous. And
why? Because the result of rewarding too many citizens is to encourage many to
do you good service, but the result of rewarding no one, even if deserving, is
to discourage emulation in all.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by C. A. Vince, M. A. and J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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