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[2]
It therefore becomes serious-minded men at the very time
that they enjoy the presence of Fortune at her best to show the greater eagerness to
practise discretion. For no danger is so formidable that men who are on their guard cannot
guard against it,1 and there is none that men who belittle it may not expect to suffer.
I say this, not to frighten you needlessly, but in order that, when you hear rumors of
danger, you may not despise them because of your present prosperity—they may
come true unless you take forethought for your interests— but rather in order
that, without waiting to learn by experience, you may forestall trouble, just as becomes
men who at least claim to be second to none in point of discretion.
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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