Against Boeotus II

Demosthenes

Demosthenes. Vol. IV. Orations, XXVII-XL. Murray, A. T., translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936 (printing).

And, besides, think how absurd it is that this fellow should abuse my father for his failings toward him, when it was thanks to this father’s failings[*](There is a play on the double sense of ἁμαρτάνειν, which is often used as a euphemism for the frailties of love.—Paley.) that he became a citizen of your state. I, on my part, have, thanks to the mother of these men, been deprived of two-thirds of my property, but for all that I have too much respect for you to speak disparagingly of her.