[43]
Be well assured also that the facility acquired solely
from practical experience is treacherous and useless for subsequent needs of
life, but the education secured through the pursuit of philosophy is happily
blended in all these needs. There is no denying, of course, that in the past
some men who got practical training just by good luck in action have won
admiration, but for you the proper thing is to disregard these men and to take
yourself seriously in hand. For in matters of the utmost importance you should
not be extemporizing instead of really knowing what to do or in emergencies be
studying your arguments instead of really knowing how to debate an issue on its
merits.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by Norman W. DeWitt, Ph.D., and Norman J. DeWitt, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1949.
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