Demosthenes: “Impossible is it,--impossible, Athenians,--to acquire a solid power by injustice and perjury and falsehood.”

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?

For the riches of a state I consider to be allies, confidence, good-will; of all which you are destitute.

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

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.