Isocrates' pupils

Nevertheless you will not find that any one of them, numerous as they are, has ever been thought worthy to have pupils, while I, as my accuser states, have had more than all the rest together who are occupied with philosophy.

for, although my opponent made no argument whatever on the merits of the case, and did nothing but decry my “cleverness” of speech and indulge in extravagant nonsense about my wealth and the number of my pupils, they imposed the trierarchy upon me.

Here in the indictment my accuser endeavors to vilify me, charging that I corrupt young men by teaching them to speak and gain their own advantage in the courts contrary to justice, while in his speech he makes me out to be a man whose equal has never been known either among those who hang about the law-courts or among the devotees of philosophy;

Although it is dangerous for us here in Athens to send a letter to Macedonia, not only now when we are at war with you, but even in time of peace, nevertheless I have decided to write to you concerning Diodotus, as I think it only right to esteem highly all those who have been my pupils and who have shown themselves worthy disciples, and not the least among them this man both because of his devoti …

For although many men of various countries have been my pupils and some of these are of great repute, and while of all the others some have proved to be distinguished for eloquence alone, and others in intellect and in practical affairs, and still others have indeed been men of sobriety of life and cultivated tastes, but for general usefulness in the practical affairs of life utterly devoid of nat …