Dēmosthenēs (c.384–322 BCE) was an Athenian statesman and the greatest of the Greek orators. He prophesied the significance of the rise of an autocratic Macedonia and its implications for traditional Athenian and Greek political freedom.
Born the son of a wealthy sword manufacturer in Athens, Dēmosthenēs studied studying rhetoric and legal procedure under Isaeus and took up law as a profession. Up to the age of 30, he confined himself to speechwriting for others (as a “logographos”) and gained a reputation as a constitutional lawyer. As stated by the Greek biographer Plutarch, Dēmosthenēs prevailed over an initial stammer by training himself to talk with pebbles in his mouth.
Dēmosthenēs embarked on a political career in 351 BCE, by when the Greek city-states were under threat from Macedon. Endorsing a policy of total resistance in his political speeches, he roused Athens to oppose Philip II of Macedon and, later, his son Alexander the Great.
Philip’s attack on the northern state of Olynthus gave occasion to the three political speeches Olynthiacs (349 BCE,) which, with the orations against Philip called the Philippics (351, 334, and 341 BCE,) are Dēmosthenēs’s greatest speeches. They provide essential information on the political, social, and economic life of 4th-century Athens.
From 346 to 340 BCE, Dēmosthenēs led an anti-Macedon party and accused his political opponent Aeschines for betraying Athens. Philip II defeated the Greeks at the battle of Chaeronea in 338 BCE, and Dēmosthenēs committed suicide after the failure of an Athenian revolt against Macedon.
Besides his rhetorical form, Dēmosthenēs was a man of outstanding moral and intellectual qualities who knew how to use the power of language to defend individual Greek freedom against a new power.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by 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
There is one safeguard, which is an advantage and security for all, but especially to democracies against despots. What is it? Distrust.
—Demosthenes
Topics: Government, Trust
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
Topics: Thought
Whatever shall be to the advantage of all, may that prevail!
—Demosthenes
Everything great is not always good, but all good things are great.
—Demosthenes
Topics: Greatness
It is not possible to found a lasting power upon injustice, perjury, and treachery.
—Demosthenes
Topics: Power, Justice
Every advantage in the past is judged in the light of the final issue.
—Demosthenes
What we have in us of the image of God is the love of truth and justice.
—Demosthenes
Topics: Truth
What we wish, that we readily believe.
—Demosthenes
Topics: Faith
The sower of the seed is assuredly the author of the whole harvest of mischief.
—Demosthenes
The easiest thing in the world is self-deceit; for every man believes what he wishes, though the reality is often different.
—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 on him, and to talk of it, is little different from reproach.
—Demosthenes
Topics: Kindness
The readiest and surest way to get rid of censure, is to correct ourselves.
—Demosthenes
Topics: Censorship
No man who is not willing to help himself has any right to apply to his friends, or to the gods.
—Demosthenes
Topics: Self-reliance
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
Topics: Speech
To remind a man of the good turns you have done him is very much like a reproach.
—Demosthenes
Topics: Gratitude
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
No man can tell what the future may bring forth, and small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.
—Demosthenes
Topics: Opportunities, Luck, Opportunity
Success has a great tendency to conceal and throw a veil over the evil deeds of men.
—Demosthenes
Topics: Success
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