Quotes by Demosthenes

• The readiest and surest way to get rid of censure, is to correct ourselves.
• All speech is vain and empty unless it be accompanied by action.
• Beware lest in your anxiety to avoid war you obtain a master.
• Every dictator is an enemy of freedom, an opponent of law.
• Excessive dealings with tyrants are not good for the security of free states.
• I am a citizen of the world.
• No man who is not willing to help himself has any right to apply to his friends, or to the gods.
• A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.
• The best protection for the people is not necessarily to believe everything people tell them.
• 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.
• 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.
• To remind a man of the good turns you have done him is very much like a reproach.
• What we have in us of the image of God is the love of truth and justice.
• What we wish, that we readily believe.
• Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.
• Close alliances with despots are never safe for free states.