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Furthermore, the former are dilatory in action,1 for they spend most of their time over their private concerns; and when they do assemble in council, you will find them more often quarrelling2 with each other than deliberating together; while the latter, for whom no councils or times of meeting are prescribed, but who apply themselves to the state's business both day and night, do not let opportunities pass them by, but act in each case at the right moment.
1 See Demosthenes' contrast between the checks and delays which were put upon him as leader of the Athenians and Phillip's freedom to act and strike quickly, Dem. 18.294. Cf. Dem. 4.40-46.
2 For the selfish bickerings of the platform orators see Isoc. 12.12
Isocrates. Isocrates with an English Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1980.
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