Such is the truth, spoken with perfect freedom, purely from good-will and for the best: not a speech fraught with flattery and mischief and deceit, to earn money for the speaker, and to put the commonwealth into the hands of our enemies.
Demosthenes concludes a point by asserting the truthfulness and good intentions of his speech, contrasting it with the deceptive and self-serving rhetoric of others.
Share
More from Demosthenes
To censure, I may be told, is easy for any man; to show what measures the case requires, is the part of a counselor.
Choose which ye think expedient; and put hands to the work, while it is yet time.
To this point are the affairs of Athens brought, that the more fully and clearly one convicts Philip of violating the peace with you, and plotting against the whole of Greece, the more difficult it becomes to advise you how to act.
Impossible is it,--impossible, Athenians,--to acquire a solid power by injustice and perjury and falsehood.
Other voices in this conversation
