Demosthenes, Exordia
Norman W. DeWitt, Norman J. DeWitt, Ed.

I should like you to listen attentively to what I am going to say, men of Athens; it is not unimportant. I wonder just why it is that, before we come up to the Assembly, any one of you whom a person may chance to meet is prepared to say readily by what means the present state of affairs may be improved; and then again, the minute you leave the Assembly, each man will be just as ready to say what we ought to do. But when we are met together and dealing with these problems, you hear anything rather than this from certain speakers. [2] Then has each one of you, men of Athens, the gift of deciding what ought to be done, and does each know how to state the duties of the rest, while he is reluctant himself to do his own, and then again, does each man as an individual, as if to give the impression of being one who would of course promptly do what is best, find fault with everyone else, but as a body are you committed to fighting shy of voting such measures as will ensure that you will one and all become engaged in performing some duty to the State? [3] Well then, if you really think that no crisis will arrive to make a breach in this fence of evasiveness, it would be grand to carry on after this fashion. But if you see your troubles drawing nearer, you must plan that you shall not have to grapple with them at close range when it is possible to forestall them from a distance, and that you shall not have those whom you now disregard exulting later on at your discomfiture