Mercenaries I recommend--and beware of doing what has often been injurious--thinking all measures below the occasion, adopting the strongest in your decrees, you fail to accomplish the least--rather, I say, perform and procure a little, add to it afterward, if it prove insufficient.
In a speech urging action against Philip, Demosthenes advises against grand, unachievable plans, advocating for practical, incremental steps.
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To censure, I may be told, is easy for any man; to show what measures the case requires, is the part of a counselor.
As for me, never before have I courted favor, by speaking what I am not convinced is for your good, and now I have spoken my whole mind frankly and unreservedly.
Then are you not ashamed, that the very damage which you would suffer, if he had the power, you dare not seize the moment to inflict on him?
If it be his principle, ever to do more than he has done, and yours, to apply yourselves vigorously to nothing, see what the end promises to be.
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