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.
DEMOSTHENESThe 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.
More Demosthenes Quotes
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Excessive dealings with tyrants are not good for the security of free states.
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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.
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We need money, for sure, Athenians, and without money nothing can be done that ought to be done.
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The end of wisdom is consultation and deliberation.
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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.
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We believe whatever we want to believe.
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Success has a great tendency to conceal and throw a veil over the evil deeds of men.
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What a man wishes, he will believe.
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The fact speak for themselves.
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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.
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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.
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He who confers a favor should at once forget it, if he is not to show a sordid ungenerous spirit. To remind a man of a kindness conferred and to talk of it, is little different from reproach.
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A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.
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Every dictator is an enemy of freedom, an opponent of law.
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Close alliances with despots are never safe for free states.
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