Every advantage in the past is judged in the light of the final issue.

The line expresses a retrospective logic: earlier gains, privileges, or tactical successes only truly “count” once the outcome is known. What looked like an advantage at the time may be reclassified as irrelevant, squandered, or even harmful if the final result is failure; conversely, modest beginnings can be vindicated by eventual success. In a political and forensic setting—where Demosthenes often argues about policy, strategy, and accountability—the thought functions as a warning against complacency and a call to judge decisions by their consequences rather than by momentary triumphs. It also implies that history is written from the endpoint: the “final issue” reshapes how the past is evaluated.