Do not be surprised if I am found saying something which you have heard before; for one statement I may perhaps chance upon unwittingly, another I may consciously employ, if it is pertinent to the discussion. Certainly I should be foolish if, although I see others using my thoughts, I alone should refrain from employing what I have previously said.For this apology see Isoc. 15.74 and Isoc. 5.93-94 (with Norlin’s note).

This is the reason, then, for these introductory words, that the very first precept I shall present is one of those most often repeated. I am accustomed, that is, to tell the students in my school of rhetoricLiterally “philosophy”; but for the meaning of “philosophy” in Isocrates see the General Introd. to Vol. I, pp. xxvi ff., of Isocrates (L.C.L.). that the first question to be considered is—what is the object to be accomplished by the discourse as a whole and by its parts? And when we have discovered this and the matter has been accurately determined, I say that we must seek the rhetorical elements whereby that which we have set out to do may be elaborated and fulfilled. And this procedure I prescribe with reference to discourse, yet it is a principle applicable not only to all other matters, but also to your own affairs.