56 quotes
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.
II. Second Olynthiac (-8)
My view is that the recipient of a benefit ought to remember it all his life, but that the benefactor ought to put it out of his mind at once. [. . .] To remind a man of the good turns you have done to him is very much like a reproach.
XVIII. On the Crown (-330)
But there is one common bulwark which the instinct of sensible men possesses within itself, a good and safe one for all, but invaluable for democracies against tyrants. And what is that bulwark? It is mistrust. If you preserve it, no harm can touch you.
VI. Second Philippic (-2)
But you, Athenians, possessing unsurpassed resources—fleet, infantry, cavalry, revenues— have never to this very day employed them aright, and yet you carry on war with Philip exactly as a barbarian boxes. The barbarian, when struck, always clutches the place; hit him on the other side and there go his hands. He neither knows nor cares how to parry a blow or how to watch his adversary.
IV. First Philippic (-1)
In the result, of course, the excessive and inopportune apathy of the common people has been punished by the loss of their independence, while their leaders, who fancied they were selling everything except themselves, discover too late that their own liberty was the first thing they sold.
XVIII. On the Crown (-330)
What we have in us of the image of God, is the love of truth and justice.
Misattributed
The readiest and surest way to get rid of censure, is to correct ourselves.
Misattributed
The man who runs away will fight again.
Attributed
It's not what's great that is good, but what's good that is great.
Attributed
I will not buy regret for ten thousand drachmas.
Attributed
The end of wisdom is consultation and deliberation.
Misattributed
As a vessel is known by the sound, whether it be whole or broken; so are men proved by their speech, whether they be wise or foolish.
Misattributed
Men of Athens, you will have use of my services as a counsellor, even if you do not want them, but not as a false accuser, even if you do.
Attributed
The sinews of affairs are cut.
Attributed
Recorded in N. Ling, Politeuphuia. Wits Common-wealth (London, 1597), f. 150r, without attribution. First attributed to Demosthenes in the 1647 edition, but does not occur in his writings.
Misattributed
ὑπόκρισις, ὑπόκρισις, ὑπόκρισις.
Attributed