[19]
Men who aim at office and at
official rank go to and fro cringing to the favours of the electorate; each
one's ambition is to join the sacred ranks of the generals, not to do a man's
work. If anyone is really capable of undertaking a job, he thinks that by
exploiting the reputation and renown of Athens, profiting by the absence of opposition, holding out
hopes to you and nothing but hopes, he will be sole inheritor of your
advantages—and so he is; but if you act as your own agents in every
case, he will only have his equal share with the rest, both in the labours and
also in their results.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by C. A. Vince, M. A. and J. H. Vince, M.A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1926.
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