If the rich will adopt this principle, I think they will act both justly and wisely; for to deprive any class of a necessary provision, is to unite them in disaffection to the commonwealth.
Demosthenes advises the wealthy that providing for the needy is both just and prudent to prevent widespread disaffection.
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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.
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.
For the riches of a state I consider to be allies, confidence, good-will; of all which you are destitute.
Because our city is the only one where liberty is allowed to speak for the enemy, where a man taking a bribe may safely address the people, though they have been deprived of their possessions.
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