Demosthenes: “It is impossible, I say, to have a high and noble spirit, while you are engaged in petty and mean employments: whatever…”

Yea, among these men, some have risen rapidly from poverty to wealth, from meanness and obscurity to repute and honor, while you, on the contrary, have fallen from honor to obscurity, from wealth to indigence.

I say, you must either desist from these practices, or blame none but yourselves for the wretched condition of your affairs.

How is it equitable, that certain of these men, returned from prison, should not know themselves, while the state, that once protected all Greece and held the foremost place, is sunk in ignominy and humiliation?

They say that you should keep quiet, though you are injured; but they can not themselves keep quiet among you, though no one injures them.