Present crisis and urgency
idea · 2 works · 2 mentions · 2 anchored passages
at once · crisis · eleventh hour · now · now or never · opportunity · present · present crisis · while there is yet time
spoken of as
1 expressionUrgency of the present crisis1 mention
Third Olynthiac (Greek)
Never was there a crisis that demanded more careful handling than the present.
in the texts
First Olynthiac
The time-sensitive condition requiring Athens to act before opportunity passes.
The present crisis, Athenians, calls on you, almost with an audible voice, to take into your own hands the control of your interests in the North, if you are really anxious to safeguard them.
choose whichever of them you think expedient, and, while there is yet time, grapple with the problem.
put your heart into the war, now or never.
Third Olynthiac
The immediate pressure to act before Athens loses the chance to resist Philip effectively.
Never was there a crisis that demanded more careful handling than the present.
If, therefore, even at the eleventh hour, you can shake off these habits, and consent to fight and act as becomes Athenians and to devote the abundant resources that you have at home to the attainment of success abroad, perhaps, men of Athens, perhaps you may gain some important and unqualified advantage and may be quit of these paltry perquisites.
Why, what better time or occasion could you find than the present, men of Athens?