Exordia (42.1-43.1)

It is nothing out of the ordinary, men of Athens, that those public men who are always and unceasingly agitating on behalf of the oligarchies should be convicted of doing so upon this occasion also. On the contrary, one might much more reasonably be astonished that you, though aware of the truth, repeatedly prefer to listen to them rather than to those who speak in your own defence. It may very well be that it is difficult to act wisely in all public matters, just as it is in private matters, but certainly it is wrong to take a light view of things of the very greatest importance.

Assuredly all other considerations are of less consequence, and when you listen good-naturedly to speeches on behalf of government efficiency[*] and killings and the overthrow of democracy, how can one help but consider that you too are out of your minds? For all other men profit by the example of their fellows and are themselves rendered much more cautious thereby,[*] but you, even when you hear what is happening to the rest of the Greeks are incapable of taking alarm, but the very thing that you consider men to be witless for awaiting as individuals you seem to me to be calmly awaiting yourselves as a community that is, to learn by bitter experience.

Perhaps none of you has ever inquired, men of Athens, just why men in adversity deliberate more wisely over their affairs than do the prosperous. This comes about for no other reason than this, that it is not natural for the prosperous to feel any alarm or to believe that such dangers as someone may report concern themselves; those, however, who are close in time to the mistakes through which they have come to adversity are rendered discreet with reference to future actions and inclined to moderation.[*]