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I have taken the floor, men of Athens,
because I do not hold the same views as some of those who have spoken. Still I shall not
allege that these men out of villainy have expressed sentiments opposed to your best
interests, but I say that many, while neglecting to judge events critically, make a
practice of considering the words they will use, and if they chance to find an ample
supply of these, of haranguing the people without more ado. In this they are wrong nor do
they reflect in their own minds that, since it is the experience of all that over a long
period many plans have worked out happily and some of them, because of the times, quite
contrary to their promise, if some speaker cites the one kind and passes over the other,
he will unconsciously be doing the easiest thing in the world, deceiving himself.
Demosthenes with an English translation by Norman W. DeWitt, Ph.D., and Norman J. DeWitt, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1949.
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