Isocrates On the Peace 13

[13] And the cause of this condition of affairs is that, although you ought to be as much concerned about the business of the commonwealth as about your own, you do not feel the same interest in the one as in the other; on the contrary, whenever you take counsel regarding your private business you seek out as counsellors men who are your superiors in intelligence, but whenever you deliberate on the business of the state you distrust and dislike men of that character and cultivate, instead, the most depraved ¹ of the orators who come before you on this platform; and you prefer as being better friends of the people those who are drunk ² to those who are sober, those who are witless to those who are wise, and those who dole out the public money ³ to those who perform public services ⁴ at their own expense. So that we may well marvel that anyone can expect a state which employs such counsellors to advance to better things.