No! You were hired to ruin the interests of your countrymen and yet, though you have been caught yourself in open treason, and informed against yourself after the fact, you revile and reproach me for things which you will find any man is chargeable with sooner than I. For upon what plea of equality or justice could Aeschines, son of Glaucothea, the timbrel player, be the friend or acquaintance of Philip? I cannot see. And yet you open your mouth and dare to look these men in the faces! Do you think they don’t know you?-or are sunk in such slumber and oblivion as not to remember the speeches which you delivered in the assembly, cursing and swearing that you had nothing to do with Philip, and that I brought that charge against you out of personal enmity without foundation? No sooner came the news of the battle than you forgot all that you acknowledge and avowed that between Philip and yourself there subsisted a relation of hospitality and friendship-new names these for your contract of hire. What greater crime can an orator be charged with than that his opinions and his language are not the same? Such is found to be your character. On whom does the crier pronounce a curse? Surely on such a man. How can this possibly be?Īnd who is it that deceives the state? Surely the man who speaks not what he thinks. Aeschines says that my individual fortune is paramount to that of the commonwealth, the small and mean to the good and great. Such is my opinion upon the subject of fortune, a right and just one, as it appears to me, and I think you will agree with it. As to my fortune (personally speaking) or that of any individual among us, it should, as I conceive, be judged of in connection with personal matters. The fortune of all mankind, which now prevails, I consider cruel and dreadful: for what Greek, what barbarian, has not in these times experienced a multitude of evils? That Athens chose the noblest policy, that she fares better than those very Greeks who thought, if they abandoned us, they should abide in prosperity, I reckon as part of her good fortune if she suffered reverses, if all happened not to us as we desired, I conceive she has had that share of the general fortune which fell to our lot. I hold the fortune of our commonwealth to be good, and so I find the oracles of Dodonaean Jupiter and Pythian Apollo declaring to us. Therefore is the commonwealth undefeated as far as I am concerned. But by refusing the price of corruption I have overcome Philip for as the offer of a bribe, if it be accepted, as vanquished the taker, so the person who refuses it and is not corrupted has vanquished the person offering. Well, your forces were not under my command or control, so that I cannot be questioned for anything done in that department. Ask any man, by what means Philip achieved most of his successes, and you will be told, by his army, and by his bribing and corrupting men in power. All this, too, I have performed and no one can discover the least neglect on my part. What are his functions? To observe things in the beginning, to foresee and foretell them to others-this I have done: again, wherever he finds delays, backwardness, ignorance, jealousies, vices inherent and unavoidable in all communities, to contract them into the narrowest compass, and on the other hand, to promote unanimity and friendship and zeal in the discharge of duty. Of what a statesman may be responsible for, I allow the utmost scrutiny I deprecate it not. This book provides a wealth of valuable examples of great oratory for writers, speakers, and history aficionados. Editor William Safire has collected a diverse range of speeches from both ancient and modern times, from people of many different backgrounds and political affiliations, and from people on both sides of history's greatest battles and events. Gore decision that changed the landscape of American politics in our time. George Patton inspiring Allied troops on the eve of D-Day to Pericles's impassioned eulogy for fallen Greek soldiers during the Peloponnesian War and from Jesus of Nazareth's greatest sermons to Ruth Bader Ginsburg's fiery speech in response to the Bush vs. Speeches in Lend Me Your Ears span a broad stretch of history, from Gen. This third edition of the bestselling collection of classic and modern oratory offers numerous examples of the greatest speeches ever delivered-from the ancient world to the modern. From a Pulitzer Prize–winning author, this collection of speeches is "the most valuable kind of book, the kind that benefits mind and heart" (Peggy Noonan).
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