Historical voices

This you must leave off; be yourselves again; establish a general liberty of speech, deliberation, and action.

The result is that, while you are quarreling and divided, some holding one opinion, some another, the commonwealth goes wrong.

The war now has left us nothing to keep; we have all to get, and the work must be done by ourselves.

Unreasonable were this and unnatural; for all things are easier kept than gotten.

Then are ye so senseless, Athenians, as to imagine, that the same measures, which have brought the country from a prosperous to a poor condition, will bring it from a poor to a prosperous?

I marvel not at that; the contrary would have been marvelous, if we doing none of the duties of war had beaten one doing all.

No wonder then that he, marching and toiling in person, present on all occasions, neglecting no time or season, prevails over us delaying and voting and inquiring.

But we sit doing nothing; and a man idle himself can not require even his friends to act for him, much less the gods.

Success perhaps throws a shade over them now; prosperity is a famous hider of such blemishes; but, on any miscarriage, they will be fully exposed.

Small matters these may be thought, Athenians, but to the wise they are strong indications of his character and wrong-headedness.

He desires glory, makes that his passion, is ready for any consequence of adventure and peril, preferring to a life of safety the honor of achieving what no Macedonian king ever did before.

You must show yourselves greatly reformed, greatly changed, contributing, serving personally, acting promptly, before any one will pay attention to you.

All speech without action appears vain and idle, but especially that of our commonwealth; as the more we are thought to excel therein, the more is our speaking distrusted by all.

But look to this, Athenians, that our envoys shall not only make speeches, but have some real proof that we have gone forth as becomes our country, and are engaged in action.

As a house, a ship, or the like, ought to have the lower parts firmest, so in human conduct, I ween, the principle and foundation should be just and true.

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

True, when a confederacy subsists by good-will, and all parties to the war have a common interest, men are willing to co-operate and bear hardships and persevere.

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.

He has risen by conciliating and cajoling the weakness of every people in turn who knew him not.

To call him perjured and treacherous, without showing what he has done, might justly be termed idle abuse.

It must then be our care, Athenians, that we are not more unkind to ourselves than circumstances have been; as it would be a foul, a most foul reproach, to have abandoned not only cities and places that once belonged to us, but also the…

On many occasions, men of Athens, one may see the kindness of the gods to this country manifested, but most signally, I think, on the present.

There is the insult too, and the disgrace of the thing, worse than any damage to right-thinking men.

And let not this escape you, Athenians, that you have now the choice, whether you shall fight there, or he in your country.