Demosthenes Quotes


"All speech is vain and empty unless it be accompanied by action."
- Demosthenes
(Related: Action, Speech)

"Beware lest in your anxiety to avoid war you obtain a master."
- Demosthenes
(Related: War, Anxiety)

"Every dictator is an enemy of freedom, an opponent of law."
- Demosthenes
(Related: Enemy, Freedom, Law)

"Excessive dealings with tyrants are not good for the security of free states."
- Demosthenes
(Related: Security, states)

"I am a citizen of the world."
- Demosthenes
(Related: World)

"No man who is not willing to help himself has any right to apply to his friends, or to the gods."
- Demosthenes
(Related: Gods, Friends, Help, Man, Right)

"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true."
- Demosthenes
(Related: Man, Wishes)

"The best protection for the people is not necessarily to believe everything people tell them."
- Demosthenes
(Related: People, Protection)

"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
(Related: Men, Sound)

"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
(Related: Security, Suspicion)

"To remind a man of the good turns you have done him is very much like a reproach."
- Demosthenes
(Related: Man)

"What we have in us of the image of God is the love of truth and justice."
- Demosthenes
(Related: Love, God, Truth, Justice)

"What we wish, that we readily believe."
- Demosthenes
"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
(Related: Actions, Man, Spirit)

"Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises."
- Demosthenes
(Related: Beginning)

"Close alliances with despots are never safe for free states."
- Demosthenes
(Related: states)