On the recordc. 349 BC
The speeches, I find, are about punishing Philip; but our condition is come to this, that we must mind we are not first damaged ourselves.
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Demosthenes
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gutenberg.orgDemosthenes: “The speeches, I find, are about punishing Philip; but our condition is come to this, that we must mind we are not first…”
Editor's note · Context
Speaking to the Athenians, he warns against focusing on retribution while their own security is at risk.
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More from Demosthenes
c. 349 BC
But I suppose, you inherit a reputation from your father and grandfather, which it were disgraceful in your own person to extinguish, whereas the ancestry of the state was ignoble and mean.
c. 349 BC
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.
c. 349 BC
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.
c. 349 BC
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?
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