Exordia

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.[*](Aesch. Ag. 176-178Zeus who sets mortals in the path of wisdom and hath enacted a law of learning by suffering.)

It therefore becomes serious-minded men at the very time that they enjoy the presence of Fortune at her best to show the greater eagerness to practise discretion. For no danger is so formidable that men who are on their guard cannot guard against it,[*](Cf. Dem. 4.3.) and there is none that men who belittle it may not expect to suffer. I say this, not to frighten you needlessly, but in order that, when you hear rumors of danger, you may not despise them because of your present prosperity—they may come true unless you take forethought for your interests— but rather in order that, without waiting to learn by experience, you may forestall trouble, just as becomes men who at least claim to be second to none in point of discretion.