In dealing with
the sum of money under discussion and the other matters referred to this
Assembly, I see no difficulty, men of Athens, in either of two methods: I may attack the officials
who assign and distribute the public funds and may thus gain credit with those
who regard this system as detrimental to the State, or I may approve and commend
the right to receive these doles and so gratify those who are especially in need
of them. For neither class has the interest of the State in view, when they
approve or complain of the system, but they are prompted respectively by their
poverty or their affluence.
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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