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Démosthenés Quotes

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 and a lawyer, writing speeches for use in private legal suits.

Demosthenes grew interested in politics during his time as a logographer, and in 354 BC he gave his first public political speeches. He went on to devote his most productive years to opposing Macedon's expansion. He idealized his city and strove throughout his life to restore Athens' supremacy and motivate his compatriots against Philip II of Macedon. He sought to preserve his city's freedom and to establish an alliance against Macedon, in an unsuccessful attempt to impede Philip's plans to expand his influence southward by conquering all the other Greek states.

After Philip's death, Demosthenes played a leading part in his city's uprising against the new king of Macedonia, Alexander the Great. However, his efforts failed and the revolt was met with a harsh Macedonian reaction. To prevent a similar revolt against his own rule, Alexander's successor in this region, Antipater, sent his men to track Demosthenes down. Demosthenes took his own life, in order to avoid being arrested by Archias of Thurii, Antipater's confidant.

The Alexandrian Canon compiled by Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace recognised Demosthenes as one of the ten greatest Attic orators and logographers. Longinus likened Demosthenes to a blazing thunderbolt and argued that he "perfected to the utmost the tone of lofty speech, living passions, copiousness, readiness, speed." Quintilian extolled him as lex orandi . And Cicero said about him that inter omnis unus excellat and also acclaimed him as "the perfect orator" who lacked nothing. Wikipedia  

✵ 384 BC – 12. October 322 BC
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Démosthenés: 11   quotes 16   likes

Famous Démosthenés Quotes

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

Démosthenés

As quoted in The World's Laconics: Or, The Best Thoughts of the Best Authors (1853) by Everard Berkeley, p. 34

“The easiest thing in the world is self-deceit; for every man believes what he wishes, though the reality is often different.”

Démosthenés

Third Olynthiac http://books.google.com/books?id=n4INAAAAYAAJ&q="the+easiest+thing+in+the+world+is+self-deceit+for+every+man+believes+what+he+wishes+though+the+reality+is+often+different"&pg=PA57#v=onepage, section 19 (349 BC), as translated by Charles Rann Kennedy (1852)
Variants:
A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.
As quoted in The Routledge Dictionary of Quotations (1987) by Robert Andrews, p. 255
There is nothing easier than self-delusion. Since what man desires, is the first thing he believes.

“For a house, I take it, or a ship or anything of that sort must have its chief strength in its substructure; and so too in affairs of state the principles and the foundations must be truth and justice.”

Démosthenés

Olytnhiac II, 10 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0070%3Aspeech%3D2%3Asection%3D10

“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.”

Démosthenés

As quoted in Journal of the History of Ideas Vol. 1‎ (1940), p. 472

“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.”

Démosthenés

As quoted in Dictionary of foreign phrases and classical quotations (1908) by Hugh Percy Jones, p. 140

Démosthenés Quotes

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

Démosthenés

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 455.

“Delivery, delivery, delivery.”

Démosthenés

Response when asked to name the three most important components of rhetoric, as quoted in Institutio Oratoria (c. 95) by Quintilian; also in Unspoken : A Rhetoric of Silence (2004) by Cheryl Glenn, p. 150

“No man can tell what the future may bring forth, and small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.”

Démosthenés

Ad Leptinum 162, as quoted in Dictionary of Quotations (Classical) (1897) by Thomas Benfield Harbottle, p. 511

Future

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

Démosthenés

Olynthiacs; Philippics (1930) as translated by James Herbert Vince, p. 11

Light , Past

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

Démosthenés

Speech against Philip II of Macedon (351 BC), in Olynthiacs; Philippics (1930) as translated by James Herbert Vince, p. 99

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