Demosthenes

Demosthenes (384 BC - 322 BC) was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens, generally considered the greatest of the Greek orators.

Sourced

• Delivery, delivery, delivery.
  • Response when asked to name the three most important aspects of rhetoric, as quoted in "Demosthenes: Action on the political and forensic stage" by C. Cooper. in Oral Performance and its Context (2004) by C. J. MacKie, p. 154 ISBN 9004136800
• The readiest and surest way to get rid of censure, is to correct ourselves.
  • Correctives: Webster’s Quotations, Facts and Phrases (2008, ICON Group International, Inc.), page 2

Unsourced

• A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true.

• Every advantage in the past is judged in the light of the final issue.

• Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.

• The man who has received a benefit ought always to remember it, but he who has granted it ought to forget the fact at once.

• You cannot have a proud and chivalrous spirit if your conduct is mean and paltry; for whatever a man's actions are, such must be his spirit.

• Whatever shall be to the advantage of all, may that prevail! (Speech against Philip II of Macedon [351BC])

• When Cicero spoke, the people would say, "what a clever man Cicero is." When Demosthenes spoke, the people would say, "let us march against Philip."
  • Common proverb.