Against Lochites

Do not wait for the time when these enemies shall unite, seize an opportune moment, and bring ruin upon the whole city, but whenever on any pretext they are delivered into your hands, punish them, thinking it a stroke of luck when you catch a man who in petty derelictions reveals his complete depravity.

It would indeed have been best, if only some distinguishing mark were borne by men of base nature,[*](So also Eur. Med. 516-519: O Zeus, ah wherefore hast thou given to menPlain signs for gold which is but counterfeit,But no assay-mark nature-graven showsOn man's form, to discern the base withal.(Translation by Way in L.C.L.)) that we might punish them before any fellow-citizen has been injured by them. But since it is impossible to perceive who such men are before a victim has suffered at their hands, at any rate as soon as their character is recognized, it is the duty of all men to hate them and to regard them as enemies of all mankind.