Top 51 Quotes & Sayings by Demosthenes

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Greek statesman Demosthenes.

Last updated on December 21, 2024.

Demosthenes was a Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide an insight into the politics and culture of ancient Greece during the 4th century BC. Demosthenes learned rhetoric by studying the speeches of previous great orators. He delivered his first judicial speeches at the age of 20, in which he argued effectively to gain from his guardians what was left of his inheritance. For a time, Demosthenes made his living as a professional speech-writer (logographer) and a lawyer, writing speeches for use in private legal suits.

Greek - Statesman | 382 BC - 322 BC

Source: Wikipedia

No man who is not willing to help himself has any right to apply to his friends, or to the gods.

Demosthenes

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

Demosthenes

What we wish, that we readily believe.

Demosthenes

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

Demosthenes

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

Demosthenes

The readiest and surest way to get rid of censure, is to correct ourselves.

Demosthenes

To remind a man of the good turns you have done him is very much like a reproach.

Demosthenes

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.

Demosthenes

Beware lest in your anxiety to avoid war you obtain a master.

Demosthenes

Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.

Demosthenes

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.

Demosthenes

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

Demosthenes

There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots - suspicion.

Demosthenes

Close alliances with despots are never safe for free states.

Demosthenes

Excessive dealings with tyrants are not good for the security of free states.

Demosthenes

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

Demosthenes

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.

Demosthenes

Whatever shall be to the advantage of all, may that prevail!

Demosthenes

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

Demosthenes

Every advantage in the past is judged in the light of the final issue.

Demosthenes

The end of wisdom is consultation and deliberation.

Demosthenes

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

Demosthenes

We believe whatever we want to believe.

Demosthenes

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.

Demosthenes

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.

Demosthenes

Nothing is easier than self-deceit.

Demosthenes

The more able a man is, if he make ill use of his abilities, the more dangerous will he be to the commonwealth.

Demosthenes

By persistent labor man may attain to all excellence.

Demosthenes

Great and unexpected successes are often the cause of foolish rushing into acts of extravagance.

Demosthenes

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.

Demosthenes

Beware lest in your anxiety to avoid war you obtain a master

Demosthenes

What a man wishes, he will believe.

Demosthenes

It is impossible for men engaged in low and groveling pursuits to have noble and generous sentiments. A man's thought must always follow his employment.

Demosthenes

Small opportunities often presage great enterprises.

Demosthenes

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

Demosthenes

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

Demosthenes

One believes in what one wants to believe in.

Demosthenes

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.

Demosthenes

He who confers a favor should at once forget it, if he is not to show a sordid ungenerous spirit. To remind a man of a kindness conferred and to talk of it, is little different from reproach.

Demosthenes

I decline to buy repentance at the cost of ten thousand drachmas.

Demosthenes

The fact speak for themselves.

Demosthenes

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

Demosthenes

It is the natural disposition of all men to listen with pleasure to abuse and slander of their neighbour, and to hear with impatience those who utter praises of themselves.

Demosthenes

Good fortune is the greatest of blessings, but good counsel comes next, and the lack of it destroys the other also.

Demosthenes

There is a great deal of wishful thinking in such cases it is the easiest thing of all to deceive ones self.

Demosthenes

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

Demosthenes

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.

Demosthenes

Clouds cannot cover secret places, nor denials conceal truth.

Demosthenes

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.

Demosthenes

Nothing is more easy than to deceive one's self, as our affections are subtle persuaders.

Demosthenes

We need money, for sure, Athenians, and without money nothing can be done that ought to be done.

Demosthenes