Demosthenes Quotes

• All speech is vain and empty unless it be accompanied by action.

  Demosthenes

  Speech, Action, Empty

  62 Copy quote

• A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.

  Demosthenes

  Believe, Men, Religion

  "The Routledge Dictionary of Quotations" by Robert Andrews, (p. 255), 1987.

  57 Copy quote

• Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.

  Demosthenes

  Inspirational, Motivational, Business

  "Dictionary of Quotations (Classical)" by Thomas Benfield Harbottle, (p. 511), 1897.

  100 Copy quote

• Success has a great tendency to conceal and throw a veil over the evil deeds of men.

  Demosthenes

  Men, Evil, Veils

  45 Copy quote

• Clouds cannot cover secret places, nor denials conceal truth.

  Demosthenes

  Clouds, Secret Places, Secret

  12 Copy quote

• Nothing is so easy as to deceive one's self; for what we wish, that we readily believe; but such expectations are often inconsistent with the real state of things.

  Demosthenes

  Real, Believe, Self

  41 Copy quote

• Everything great is not always good, but all good things, are great.

  Demosthenes

  Greatness, Good Things

  20 Copy quote

• The best protection for the people is not necessarily to believe everything people tell them.

  Demosthenes

  Believe, People, Protection

  34 Copy quote

• There are all kinds of devices invented for the protection and preservation of countries: defensive barriers, forts, trenches, and the like... But prudent minds have as a natural gift one safeguard which is the common possession of all, and this applies especially to the dealings of democracies. What is this safeguard? Skepticism. This you must preserve. This you must retain. If you can keep this, you need fear no harm.

  Demosthenes

  Trust, Country, Mind

  53 Copy quote

• Nothing is easier than self-deceit.

  Demosthenes

  Self, Deceit, Easier

  Demosthenes (2015). “Complete Works of Demosthenes (Delphi Classics)”, p.73, Delphi Classics

  47 Copy quote

• Since we are not yet fully comfortable with the idea that people from the next village are as human as ourselves, it is presumptuous in the extreme to suppose we could ever look at sociable, tool-making creatures who are from other evolutionary paths and see not beasts, but brothers, not rivals, but fellow pilgrims journeying to the shrine of intelligence...The difference... is not in the creature judged, but in the creature judging.

  Demosthenes

  Brother, Ideas, Differences

  62 Copy quote

• One believes in what one wants to believe in.

  Demosthenes

  Believe, Want

  14 Copy quote

• It is not possible to found a lasting power upon injustice, perjury, and treachery. These may, perhaps, succeed for once, and borrow for awhile, from hope, a gay and flourishing appearance. But time betrays their weakness, and they fall into ruin of themselves. For, as in structures of every kind, the lower parts should have the greatest firmness--so the grounds and principles of actions should be just and true.

  Demosthenes

  Fall, Gay, Should Have

  Demosthenes (1756). “All the orations of Demosthenes, pronounced to excite the Athenians against Philip King of Macedon: Translated into English; digested and connected, so as to form a regular history of the progress of the Macedonian power: with notes historical and critical. By Thomas Leland, ...”, p.26

  43 Copy quote

• Nothing is so easy as to deceive oneself; for what we wish, we readily believe.

  Demosthenes

  Inspirational, Believe, Wish

  15 Copy quote

• By persistent labor man may attain to all excellence.

  Demosthenes

  Men, Excellence, May

  13 Copy quote

• It is not possible to found a lasting power upon injustice, perjury, and treachery.

  Demosthenes

  Character, Injustice, Found

  Demosthenes (1756). “All the orations of Demosthenes, pronounced to excite the Athenians against Philip King of Macedon: Translated into English; digested and connected, so as to form a regular history of the progress of the Macedonian power: with notes historical and critical. By Thomas Leland, ...”, p.26

  65 Copy quote

• 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.

  Demosthenes

  Men, Benefits, Facts

  "Dictionary of foreign phrases and classical quotations" by Hugh Percy Jones, (p. 140), 1908.

  15 Copy quote

• As a vessel is known by the sound, whether it be cracked or not; so men are proved, by their speeches, whether they be wise or foolish.

  Demosthenes

  Wise, Stupid, Men

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations". Compiled by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt and Kate Louise Roberts, 1922.

  13 Copy quote

• Every dictator is an enemy of freedom, an opponent of law.

  Demosthenes

  Law, Enemy, Opponents

  26 Copy quote

• What we have in us of the image of God is the love of truth and justice.

  Demosthenes

  Love, Justice, God Image

  16 Copy quote

• 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.

  Demosthenes

  Life, Success, Mean Girls

  Demosthenes (2015). “Complete Works of Demosthenes (Delphi Classics)”, p.1827, Delphi Classics

  23 Copy quote

• The man who is in the highest state of prosperity, and who thinks his fortune is most secure, knows not if it will remain unchanged till the evening.

  Demosthenes

  Men, Thinking, Evening

  27 Copy quote

• There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots - suspicion.

  Demosthenes

  Trust, Wise, Tyrants

  26 Copy quote

• 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.

  Demosthenes

  People, March, Remember

  39 Copy quote

• Beware lest in your anxiety to avoid war you obtain a master

  Demosthenes

  Peace, War, Anxiety

  12 Copy quote

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