Yet this very thing makes me indignant, that some of you are pained at the thought of your treasury being robbed, though it depends on yourselves to guard it and to punish the criminal, but are not pained to see Philip plundering Greece, plundering as he does one people after another, to forward his designs upon you.
Demosthenes criticizes Athenians for focusing on internal financial mismanagement while ignoring Philip's external aggression against other Greek states.
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So report says, and I can well believe it; for undeserved success leads weak-minded men into folly; and thus it appears often, that to maintain prosperity is harder than to acquire it.
Because, I conceive, measuring his calculations by ambition, by his desire of universal empire, without regard to peace, quiet, or justice, he saw plainly, that to a people of our character and principles nothing could he offer or give…
Wherefore, Athenians, we must be exceedingly careful of our future measures, that by amendment therein we may efface the shame of the past.
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