# Demosthenes

Demosthenes (Δημοσθένης) (384 BC – 322 BC) was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens, generally considered the greatest of the Greek orators.

## Quotes

* ὥσπερ γὰρ οἰκίας, οἶμαι, καὶ πλοίου καὶ τῶν ἄλλων τῶν τοιούτων τὰ κάτωθεν ἰσχυρότατ᾽ εἶναι δεῖ, οὕτω καὶ τῶν πράξεων τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ τὰς ὑποθέσεις ἀληθεῖς καὶ δικαίας εἶναι προσήκει
** For a house, I take it, or a ship or anything of that sort must have its chief strength in its substructure; and so too in affairs of state the principles and the foundations must be truth and justice.
*** Olytnhiac II, 10
* The easiest thing in the world is self-deceit; for every man believes what he wishes, though the reality is often different.
** Third Olynthiac, section 19 (349 BC), as translated by Charles Rann Kennedy (1852)
** Variants:
** A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.
*** As quoted in The Routledge Dictionary of Quotations (1987) by Robert Andrews, p. 255
** There is nothing easier than self-delusion. Since what man desires, is the first thing he believes.
* Delivery, delivery, delivery.
** Response when asked to name the three most important components of rhetoric, as quoted in Institutio Oratoria (c. 95) by Quintilian; also in Unspoken : A Rhetoric of Silence (2004) by Cheryl Glenn, p. 150
* The readiest and surest way to get rid of censure, is to correct ourselves.
** As quoted in The World's Laconics: Or, The Best Thoughts of the Best Authors (1853) by Everard Berkeley, p. 34
* It is not possible to found a lasting power upon injustice, perjury, and treachery.
** Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 455.
* No man can tell what the future may bring forth, and small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.
** Ad Leptinem 162, as quoted in Dictionary of Quotations (Classical) (1897) by Thomas Benfield Harbottle, p. 511
* The man who has received a benefit ought always to remember it, but he who has granted it ought to forget the fact at once.
** As quoted in Dictionary of foreign phrases and classical quotations (1908) by Hugh Percy Jones, p. 140
* Every advantage in the past is judged in the light of the final issue.
** Olynthiacs; Philippics (1930) as translated by James Herbert Vince, p. 11
* Whatever shall be to the advantage of all, may that prevail!
** Speech against Philip II of Macedon (351 BC), in Olynthiacs; Philippics (1930) as translated by James Herbert Vince, p. 99
* You cannot have a proud and chivalrous spirit if your conduct is mean and paltry; for whatever a man's actions are, such must be his spirit.
** As quoted in Journal of the History of Ideas Vol. 1‎ (1940), p. 472

## Quotes about Demosthenes

* Of orators, if I must choose you any, it shall be Demosthenes, both for the argument he handles, and for that his eloquence is more proper to a statesman than Cicero's.
** Francis Bacon, Advice to Fulke Greville on his studies, quoted in The Oxford Authors: Francis Bacon, ed. Brian Vickers (1996), p. 105
* Do you remember that in classical times when Cicero had finished speaking, the people said, "How well he spoke" but when Demosthenes had finished speaking, they said, "Let us march."
** Adlai Stevenson, introducing John F. Kennedy in 1960, as quoted in Adlai Stevenson and The World: The Life of Adlai E. Stevenson‎ (1977) by John Bartlow Martin, p. 549

## External links

* Works by Demosthenes at Project Gutenberg
* "Demosthenes" by Plutarch
* Perseus Encyclopedia
* Ancient Library
* Britannica, 11th Edition
* Britannica online
* Biography and links
* Center for Hellenic Studies
* Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition (2001–05)
* "Demosthenes" by Ron Kurtus
* "Demosthenes" by Jona Lendering
* "Philip, Demosthenes, and Alexander" by Sanderson Beck
* "The Assembly during Demosthenes' era" by Christopher W. Blackwell
* A Smaller History of Ancient Greece-Philip of Macedon by William Smith
* "Hypotheses to the Orations of Demosthenes" by Libanius
* Statues of Demosthenes