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[2]
If, then, at the outset your judgement had been sound, there would have been no need to
assume that as a body you must do what as individuals you condemn, so that this very thing
should not be happening which is now going on. While every man goes about saying
“How disgraceful, how shocking!” and “How long will this
business go on?”, every man sitting here with you is himself one of those who do
such things. As for me, I should certainly have wished that, just as I know it pays you to
listen to the speaker who makes the best proposals, so I might be sure it would also pay
the one who made them; for so I should be much happier.1 As it now is,
I have fears; nevertheless, I shall not be deterred from saying what I am confident will
prove to be best, even if you shall not be convinced.
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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