Demosthenes

“What a man wishes he generally believes to be true”

“I'll betide thee, say I, and may the Gods, or at least the Athenians, confound thee for a vile citizen and a vile third-rate actor! Read the evidence.”

“Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.”

“Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each me wishes, that he also believes is true.”

“Since we are not yet fully comfortable with the idea that people from the next village are as human as ourselves, it is presumptuous in the extreme to suppose we could ever look at sociable, tool-making creatures who are from other evolutionary paths and see not beasts, but brothers, not rivals, but fellow pilgrims journeying to the shrine of intelligence...The difference... is not in the creature judged, but in the creature judging.”

“Beware lest in your anxiety to avoid war you obtain a master.”

“Was man wünscht, das glaubt auch jeder.”

“As a vessel is known by its sound whether it be cracked or not, so men are proved by their speeches whether they be wise or foolish.”

“Nothing is easier than self-deceit.For what every man wishes,that he also believes to be true.”