Demosthenes: “Defend yourselves instantly, and I say you will be wise: delay it, and you may wish in vain to do so hereafter.”

I request you, if I speak my mind, to be patient, and consider only, whether I speak the truth, and with a view to future amendment.

So report says, and I can well believe it; for undeserved success leads weak-minded men into folly; and thus it appears often, that to maintain prosperity is harder than to acquire it.

If a man keep what he gets, he is thankful to fortune; if he lose it by imprudence, he loses withal his memory of the obligation.

As, therefore, by such means he rose, when every people imagined he would advance their interest, so ought he by the same means to be pulled down again, when the selfish aim of his whole policy is exposed.