The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers quotes

It is said that once he was led out of his house by an old woman for the purpose of observing the stars, and he fell into a ditch and bewailed himself, on which the old woman said to him—

“Do you, O Thales, who cannot see what is under your feet, think that you shall understand what is in heaven?”

Timon also knew that he was an astronomer, and in his Silloi he praises him, saying:

Rushing into one of the assemblies armed with a spear and shield, he forewarned the people of the design of Pisistratus, and not only that but told them that he was prepared to assist them; and these were his words:

“Ye men of Athens, I am wiser than some of you, and braver than others. Wiser than those of you who do not perceive the treachery of Pisistratus; and braver than those who are aware of it, but out of fear hold their peace.”

But the council, being in the interest of Pisistratus, said that he was mad, on which he spoke as follows:

But some people say that once Croesus adorned himself in every possible manner, and took his seat upon his throne, and then asked Solon whether he had ever seen a more beautiful sight. But he said,

“Yes, I have seen cocks and pheasants, and peacocks; for they are adorned with natural colors, and such as are ten thousand times more beautiful.”

Afterwards leaving Sardis he went to Cilicia, and there he founded a city which he called Soli after his own name;

for that every one of those pebbles were sometimes worth more, and sometimes less, and so that the tyrants sometimes made each of these men of consequence, and sometimes neglected them.

Being asked why he had made no law concerning parricides, he made answer that he did not expect that any such person would exist.

When he was asked how men could be most effectually deterred from committing injustice, he said, “If those who are not injured feel as much indignation as those who are.” Another apothegm of his was that satiety was generated by wealth, and insolence by satiety.

Being asked why he had made no law concerning parricides, he made answer that he did not expect that any such person would exist. When he was asked how men could be most effectually deterred from committing injustice, he said,

“If those who are not injured feel as much indignation as those who are.”

Another apothegm of his was that satiety was generated by wealth, and insolence by satiety.

And Dioscorides, in his Commentaries, says that when he was lamenting his son, who was dead (with whose name I am not acquainted), and when someone said to him, “You do no good by weeping,” he replied,

“But that is the very reason why I weep, because I do no good.”

The following letters also are attributed to him:

He also said once to his brother, who was indignant at not being an ephor, while he himself was one:

“The reason is because I know how to bear injustice, but you do not.”

And he was made ephor in the fifty-fifth Olympiad; but Pamphila says that it was in the fifty-sixth. And he was made first ephor in the year of the archonship of Euthydemus, as we are told by Sosicrates.

and that the Cymaeans sent the murderer to Pittacus, who when he had learnt what had been done, dismissed the man, saying:

“Pardon is better than repentance.”

But Heraclitus says that the true story is that he had got Alcaeus into his power, and that he released him, saying: “Pardon is better than punishment.” He was also a lawgiver;

He used to say too that there were some victories without bloodshed. He said once to a man of Phocaea, who was saying that we ought to seek out a virtuous man:

“But if you seek ever so much you will not find one.”

Some people once asked him what thing was very grateful? and he replied: “Time.”—What was uncertain? “The future.”—What was trusty? “The land.”—What was treacherous? “The sea.”

“To bear a change of fortune for the worse with magnanimity.” Once he was on a voyage with some impious men, and the vessel was overtaken by a storm; so they began to invoke the assistance of the Gods; on which he said:

“Hold your tongues, lest they should find out that you are in this ship.”

When he was asked by an impious man what piety was, he made no reply; and when his questioner demanded the reason of his silence, he said: “I am silent because you are putting questions about things with which you have no concern.”

on which he said: “Hold your tongues, lest they should find out that you are in this ship.” When he was asked by an impious man what piety was, he made no reply; and when his questioner demanded the reason of his silence, he said:

“I am silent because you are putting questions about things with which you have no concern.”

Being asked what was pleasant to men, he replied: “Hope.” It was a saying of his that it was more agreeable to decide between enemies than between friends; for that of friends, one was sure to become an enemy to him;

and said that those who wished to wield absolute power in safety, should be guarded by the good will of their countrymen, and not by arms. And once being asked why he assumed tyrannical power, he replied:

“Because to abdicate it voluntarily, and to have it taken from one, are both dangerous.”

The following sayings also belong him:

He used to say that oil was a provocative of madness, “because Athletae, when anointed in the oil, attacked one another with mad fury.”

“How is it,” he used to say, “that those who forbid men to speak falsely, tell lies openly in their vintners’ shops?”

It was a saying of his, that he “marvelled why the Greeks at the beginning of a banquet drink out of small cups, but when they have drunk a good deal then they turn to large goblets.”

Once, when he was asked which were the more numerous, the living or the dead, he said: “Under which head do you class those who are at sea.” Being reproached by an Athenian for being a Scythian, he said:

“Well, my country is a disgrace to me, but you are a disgrace to your country.”

When he was asked what there was among men which was both good and bad, he replied: “The tongue.” He used to say: “That it was better to have one friend of great value, than many friends who were good for nothing.”

Another saying of his was, that: “The forum was an established place for men to cheat one another, and behave covetously.” Being once insulted by a young man at a drinking party, he said,

“O, young man, if now that you are young you cannot bear wine, when you are old you will have to bear water.”

Of things which are of use in life, he is said to have been the inventor of the anchor, and of the potter’s wheel.

and he said: “That which is brought into dock.” He said, too, that the strangest things that he had seen among the Greeks was that “They left the smoke in the mountains, and carried the wood down to their cities.”

Once, when he was asked which were the more numerous, the living or the dead, he said: “Under which head do you class those who are at sea.”

Being reproached by an Athenian for being a Scythian, he said: “Well, my country is a disgrace to me, but you are a disgrace to your country.” When he was asked what there was among men which was both good and bad, he replied:

And soon after he died, having flourished much about the same time as Polycrates, the tyrant, of Samos. They say that when he sang, the children laughed; and that he, hearing of this, said:

“We must then sing better for the sake of the children.”

There was also another Anaximander, a historian, and he too was a Milesian, and wrote in the Ionic dialect.

And at last he abandoned it entirely, and devoted himself to the contemplation of subjects of natural philosophy, disregarding politics. So that once when some said to him: “You have no affection for your country,”—

“Be silent,” said he, “for I have the greatest affection for my country,” pointing up to heaven.

It is said, that at the time of the passage of the Hellespont by Xerxes, he was twenty years old, and that he lived to the age of seventy-two.

“For the contemplation of the sun, and moon, and heaven.” A man once said to him: “You have lost the Athenians;”—“No,” said he, “they have lost me.” When he beheld the tomb of Mausolus, he said:

“A costly tomb is an image of a petrified estate.”

And he comforted a man who was grieving because he was dying in a foreign land, by telling him: “The descent to hell is the same from every place.”

When he beheld the tomb of Mausolus, he said: “A costly tomb is an image of a petrified estate.” And he comforted a man who was grieving because he was dying in a foreign land, by telling him:

“The descent to hell is the same from every place.”

He appears to have been the first person (according to the account given by Phavorinus in his Universal History), who said that the Poem of Homer was composed in praise of virtue and justice:

and that he was prosecuted not only for impiety, but also for Medism; and that he was condemned to death in his absence. And when news was brought him of two misfortunes—his condemnation, and the death of his children; concerning the condemnation he said:

“Nature has long since condemned both them and me.”

But about his children, he said: “I knew that I had become the father of mortals.” Some, however, attribute this saying to Solon, and others to Xenophon. And Demetrius Phalereus, in his treatise on Old Age, says that Anaxagoras buried them with his own hands.

But he bore all this with great equanimity. So that once, when he had been kicked and buffeted about, and had borne it all patiently, and someone expressed his surprise, he said:

“Suppose an ass had kicked me, would you have had me bring an action against him?”

And this is the account of Demetrius.

And they say that Euripides gave him a small work of Heraclitus to read, and asked him afterwards what he thought of it, and he replied:

“What I have understood is good; and so, I think, what I have not understood is; only the book requires a Delian diver to get at the meaning of it.”

He paid great attention also to the training of the body, and was always in excellent condition himself.

“But if I wanted shoes, and you had given me a piece of leather to make myself shoes, I should be laughed at if I took it.” And often, when he beheld the multitude of things which were being sold, he would say to himself:

“How many things are there which I do not want.”

And he was continually repeating these iambics:

Once when he saw Euclid exceedingly anxious about some dialectic arguments, he said to him:

“O Euclid, you will acquire a power of managing sophists, but not of governing men.”

For he thought that subtle hairsplitting on those subjects was quite useless; as Plato also records in the Euthydemus.

and one only evil, namely, ignorance; that riches and high birth had nothing estimable in them, but that on the contrary they were wholly evil. Accordingly, when someone told him that the mother of Antisthenes was a Thracian woman:

“Did you suppose,” said he, “that so noble a man must be born of two Athenians?”

And when Phaedo was reduced to a state of slavery, he ordered Crito to ransom him, and taught him, and made him a philosopher.

“Be of good cheer; for if our guests are sensible men, they will bear with us; and if they are not, we need not care about them.” He used to say:

“That other men lived to eat, but that he ate to live.”

Another saying of his was:

He said to someone, who was expressing indignation at being overlooked when the thirty had seized on the supreme power:

“Do you, then, repent of not being a tyrant too?”

A man said to him: “The Athenians have condemned you to death.”—“And nature,” he replied, “has condemned them.” But some attribute this answer to Anaxagoras. When his wife said to him: “You die undeservedly.”—“Would you, then,” he rejoined, “have had me deserve death?”

He said to someone, who was expressing indignation at being overlooked when the thirty had seized on the supreme power: “Do you, then, repent of not being a tyrant too?” A man said to him: “The Athenians have condemned you to death.”—

“And nature,” he replied, “has condemned them.”

But some attribute this answer to Anaxagoras. When his wife said to him: “You die undeservedly.”—“Would you, then,” he rejoined, “have had me deserve death?” He thought once that someone appeared to him in a dream, and said:

“Do you, then, repent of not being a tyrant too?” A man said to him: “The Athenians have condemned you to death.”—“And nature,” he replied, “has condemned them.” But some attribute this answer to Anaxagoras. When his wife said to him: “You die undeservedly.”—

“Would you, then,” he rejoined, “have had me deserve death?”

He thought once that someone appeared to him in a dream, and said:

The question was once put to him by a man whether he would advise him to marry or not? And he replied:

“Whichever you do, you will repent it.”

He often said that he wondered at those who made stone statues, when he saw how careful they were that the stone should be like the man it was intended to represent, but how careless they were of themselves as to guarding against being like …

The question was once put to him by a man whether he would advise him to marry or not? And he replied: “Whichever you do, you will repent it.”

He often said that he wondered at those who made stone statues, when he saw how careful they were that the stone should be like the man it was intended to represent, but how careless they were of themselves as to guarding against being like the stone.

He used also to recommend young men to be constantly looking in the glass, in order that, if they were handsome they might be worthy of their beauty, and if they were ugly they might conceal their unsightly appearance by their accomplishments.

… said that he wondered at those who made stone statues, when he saw how careful they were that the stone should be like the man it was intended to represent, but how careless they were of themselves as to guarding against being like the stone.

He used also to recommend young men to be constantly looking in the glass, in order that, if they were handsome they might be worthy of their beauty, and if they were ugly they might conceal their unsightly appearance by their accomplishments.

He once invited some rich men to dinner, and when Xanthippe was ashamed of their insufficient appointments, he said: “Be of good cheer; for if our guests are sensible men, they will bear with us;

And so he said to Aeschines, “In three days I shall die.” And when he was about to drink the hemlock, Apollodorus presented him with a handsome robe, that he might expire in it; and he said:

“Why was my own dress good enough to live in, and not good enough to die in?”

When a person said to him: “Such an one speaks ill of you;”—“To be sure,” said he, “for he has never learnt to speak well.” When Antisthenes turned the ragged side of his cloak to the light, he said:

and he said: “Why was my own dress good enough to live in, and not good enough to die in?” When a person said to him: “Such an one speaks ill of you;”—

“To be sure,” said he, “for he has never learnt to speak well.”

When Antisthenes turned the ragged side of his cloak to the light, he said: “I see your silly vanity through the holes in your cloak.” When someone said to him: “Does not that man abuse you?”—“No,” said he, “for that does not apply to me.”

When a person said to him: “Such an one speaks ill of you;”—“To be sure,” said he, “for he has never learnt to speak well.” When Antisthenes turned the ragged side of his cloak to the light, he said:

“I see your silly vanity through the holes in your cloak.”

When someone said to him: “Does not that man abuse you?”—“No,” said he, “for that does not apply to me.” It was a saying of his, too:

and you yourself endure to hear geese cackling.” To which Alcibiades answered: “Yes, but they bring me eggs and goslings.”—

“Well,” rejoined Socrates, “and Xanthippe brings me children.”

Once, she attacked him in the marketplace and tore his cloak off; his friends advised him to keep her off with his hands; “Yes, by Jove,” said he, “that while we are boxing you may all cry out, ‘Well done, Socrates, well done, Xanthippe.’

He said once to Xanthippe, who first abused him and then threw water at him:

“Did I not say that Xanthippe was thundering now, and would soon rain?”

When Alcibiades said to him: “The abusive temper of Xanthippe is intolerable;”—“But I,” he rejoined, “am used to it, just as I should be if I were always hearing the noise of a pulley; and you yourself endure to hear geese cackling.”

But the philosopher, after Lysias had prepared a defense for him, read it through, and said—

“It is a very fine speech, Lysias, but is not suitable for me; for it was manifestly the speech of a lawyer, rather than of a philosopher.”

And when Lysias replied: “How is it possible, that if it is a good speech, it should not be suitable to you?” he said: “Just as fine clothes and handsome shoes would not be suitable to me.”

but Eubulides says that he admitted that he deserved a fine of one hundred. And when the judges raised an outcry at this proposition, he said:

“My real opinion is, that as a return for what has been done by me, I deserve a maintenance in the Prytaneum for the rest of my life.”

So they condemned him to death, by eighty votes more than they had originally found him guilty.

And even Aristippus suspected the genuineness of some of his Dialogues; accordingly, they say that when he was reciting some of them at Megara, he ridiculed him, and said to him:

“Oh! you thief; where did you get that?”

And Polycritus of Menda, in the first book of his History of Dionysius, says that he lived with the tyrant till he was deposed, and till the return of Dion to Syracuse; and he says that Carcinus, the tragedian, was also with him.

They say that he once ordered a partridge to be bought for him at the price of fifty drachmas; and when someone blamed him:

“And would not you,” said he, “have bought it if it had cost an obol?”

And when he said he would: “Well,” replied Aristippus, “fifty drachmas are no more to me.” Dionysius once bade him select which he pleased of three beautiful courtesans;

However, they say that when he had carried them as far as the vestibule, he dismissed them; so easily inclined was he to select or to disregard things. On which account Strato, or, as others will have it, Plato, said to him:

“You are the only man to whom it is given to wear both a whole cloak and rags.”

Once when Dionysius spit at him, he put up with it; and when someone found fault with him, he said:

“You are the only man to whom it is given to wear both a whole cloak and rags.” Once when Dionysius spit at him, he put up with it; and when someone found fault with him, he said:

“Men endure being wetted by the sea in order to catch a tench, and shall not I endure to be sprinkled with wine to catch a sturgeon?”

Once Diogenes, who was washing vegetables, ridiculed him as he passed by, and said: “If you had learnt to eat these vegetables, you would not have been a slave in the palace of a tyrant.” But Aristippus replied:

Once Diogenes, who was washing vegetables, ridiculed him as he passed by, and said: “If you had learnt to eat these vegetables, you would not have been a slave in the palace of a tyrant.” But Aristippus replied:

“And you, if you had known how to behave among men, would not have been washing vegetables.”

Being asked once what advantage he had derived from philosophy, he said: “The power of associating confidently with everybody.” When he was reproached for living extravagantly, he replied:

But Aristippus replied: “And you, if you had known how to behave among men, would not have been washing vegetables.” Being asked once what advantage he had derived from philosophy, he said:

“The power of associating confidently with everybody.”

When he was reproached for living extravagantly, he replied: “If extravagance had been a fault, it would not have had a place in the festivals of the Gods.” At another time he was asked what advantage philosophers had over other men; and he replied:

When he was reproached for living extravagantly, he replied: “If extravagance had been a fault, it would not have had a place in the festivals of the Gods.” At another time he was asked what advantage philosophers had over other men; and he replied:

“If all the laws should be abrogated, we should still live in the same manner as we do now.”

Once when Dionysius asked him why the philosophers haunt the doors of the rich, but the rich do not frequent those of the philosophers, he said: “Because the first know what they want, but the second do not.”

“If all the laws should be abrogated, we should still live in the same manner as we do now.” Once when Dionysius asked him why the philosophers haunt the doors of the rich, but the rich do not frequent those of the philosophers, he said:

“Because the first know what they want, but the second do not.”

On one occasion he was reproached by Plato for living in an expensive way; and he replied: “Does not Dionysius seem to you to be a good man?” And as he said that he did;

He was asked once in what educated men are superior to uneducated men; and answered:

“Just as broken horses are superior to those that are unbroken.”

On another occasion he was going into the house of a courtesan, and when one of the young men who were with him blushed, he said:

and answered: “Just as broken horses are superior to those that are unbroken.” On another occasion he was going into the house of a courtesan, and when one of the young men who were with him blushed, he said:

“It is not the going into such a house that is bad, but the not being able to go out.”

Once a man proposed a riddle to him, and said: “Solve it.”—“Why, you silly fellow,” said Aristippus, “do you wish me to loose what gives us trouble, even while it is in bonds?”

Once a man proposed a riddle to him, and said: “Solve it.”—“Why, you silly fellow,” said Aristippus, “do you wish me to loose what gives us trouble, even while it is in bonds?”

A saying of his was, “that it was better to be a beggar than an ignorant person; for that a beggar only wants money, but an ignorant person wants humanity.”

Once when he was abused, he was going away, and as his adversary pursued him and said: “Why are you going away?”—“Because,” said he, “you have a license for speaking ill; but I have another for declining to hear ill.”

Once when someone brought his son to introduce to him, he demanded five hundred drachmas; and when the father said: “Why, for such a price as that I can buy a slave.”—

“Buy him then,” he replied, “and you will have a pair.”

It was a saying of his that he took money from his acquaintances not in order to use it himself, but to make them aware in what they ought to spend their money.

Once it happened that when he was sailing to Corinth, he was overtaken by a violent storm; and when somebody said: “We common individuals are not afraid, but you philosophers are behaving like cowards;” he said:

“Very likely, for we have not both of us the same kind of souls at stake.”

Seeing a man who prided himself on the variety of his learning and accomplishments, he said: “Those who eat most, and who take the most exercise, are not in better health than they who eat just as much as is good for them;

An orator had pleaded a cause for him and gained it, and asked him afterwards: “Now, what good did you ever get from Socrates?”—

“This good,” said he, “that all that you have said in my behalf is true.”

He gave admirable advice to his daughter Arete, teaching her to despise superfluity. And being asked by someone in what respect his son would be better if he received a careful education, he replied:

and his answer was: “Send them both naked among strangers, and you will find out.” A man was boasting of being able to drink a great deal without being drunk; and he said:

“A mule can do the very same thing.”

When a man reproached him for living with a mistress, he said: “Does it make any difference whether one takes a house in which many others have lived before one, or one where no one has ever lived?” and his reprover said:

But I have only Eutychides, whom I have bought with money.” And he used to live with Lais the courtesan, as Sotion tells us in the Second Book of his Successions. Accordingly, when someone reproached him on her account, he made answer:

“I possess her, but I am not possessed by her; since the best thing is to possess pleasures without being their slave, not to be devoid of pleasures.”

When someone blamed him for the expense he was at about his food, he said: “Would you not have bought those things yourself if they had cost three obols?” And when the other admitted that he would;

When someone blamed him for the expense he was at about his food, he said: “Would you not have bought those things yourself if they had cost three obols?” And when the other admitted that he would;

“Then,” said he, “it is not that I am fond of pleasure, but that you are fond of money.”

On one occasion, when Simus, the steward of Dionysius, was showing him a magnificent house paved with marble (but Simus was a Phrygian, and a great toper), he hawked up a quantity of saliva and spit in his face;

On one occasion, being reproached for having employed a hired advocate in a cause that he had depending:

“Why not,” said he; “when I have a dinner, I hire a cook.”

Once he was compelled by Dionysius to repeat some philosophical sentiment; “It is an absurdity,” said he, “for you to learn of me how to speak, and yet to teach me when I ought to speak;”

and when Simus was indignant at this, he said:

“I could not find a more suitable place to spit in.”

Charondas, or as some say, Phaedon, asked him once: “Who are the people who use perfumes?”—“I do,” said he, “wretched man that I am, and the king of the Persians is still more wretched than I;

and as Dionysius was offended at this, he placed him at the lowest end of the table; on which Aristippus said: “You wish to make this place more respectable.” A man was one day boasting of his skill as a diver;

“Are you not ashamed,” said Aristippus, “to pride yourself on your performance of the duty of a dolphin?”

On one occasion he was asked in what respect a wise man is superior to one who is not wise; and his answer was: “Send them both naked among strangers, and you will find out.”

“Are you not ashamed,” said Aristippus, “to pride yourself on your performance of the duty of a dolphin?” On one occasion he was asked in what respect a wise man is superior to one who is not wise; and his answer was:

“Send them both naked among strangers, and you will find out.”

A man was boasting of being able to drink a great deal without being drunk; and he said: “A mule can do the very same thing.” When a man reproached him for living with a mistress, he said:

On one occasion, when Dionysius asked him why he had come, he said to give others a share of what he had, and to receive a share of what he had not; but some report that his answer was:

“When I wanted wisdom, I went to Socrates; but now that I want money, I have come to you.”

He found fault with men, because when they are at sales, they examine the articles offered very carefully, but yet they approve of men’s lives without any examination. Though some attribute this speech to Diogenes.

it seems that you blame not the luxury, but the expense of it.” When his servant was once carrying some money along the road, and was oppressed by the weight of it (as Bion relates in his Dissertations), he said to him:

“Drop what is beyond your strength, and only carry what you can.”

Once he was at sea, and seeing a pirate vessel at a distance, he began to count his money; and then he let it drop into the sea, as if unintentionally, and began to bewail his loss;

He was once asking a favor of Dionysius for a friend, and when he could not prevail, he fell at his feet; and when someone reproached him for such conduct, he said:

“It is not I who am to blame, but Dionysius who has his ears in his feet.”

When he was staying in Asia, and was taken prisoner by Artaphernes the Satrap, someone said to him:

“It is not I who am to blame, but Dionysius who has his ears in his feet.” When he was staying in Asia, and was taken prisoner by Artaphernes the Satrap, someone said to him: “Are you still cheerful and sanguine?”—

“When, you silly fellow,” he replied, “can I have more reason to be cheerful than now when I am on the point of conversing with Artaphernes?”

It used to be a saying of his that those who had enjoyed the encyclic course of education, but who had omitted philosophy, were like the suitors of Penelope;

“I know that phlegm, and I know that lice, proceed from us, but still we cast them away as useless.” One day, when he had received some money from Dionysius, and Plato had received a book, he said to a man who jeered him:

“The fact is, money is what I want, and books what Plato wants.”

When he was asked what it was for which he was reproached by Dionysius: “The same thing,” said he, “for which others reproach me.” One day he asked Dionysius for some money, who said:

As he had made money by having pupils, Socrates once said to him: “Where did you get so much?” and he answered: “Where you got a little.” When his mistress said to him: “I am in the family way by you,” he said:

“You can no more tell that, than you could tell, after you had gone through a thicket, which thorn had scratched you.”

And when someone blamed him for repudiating his son, as if he were not really his, he said: “I know that phlegm, and I know that lice, proceed from us, but still we cast them away as useless.”

He took him up, and replied:

“That man is but a slave who comes as free.”

This story is told by Diocles, in his book on the Lives of the Philosophers; but others attribute the rejoinder to Plato. He once quarrelled with Aeschines, and presently afterwards said to him:

but will you wait till some blockhead reconciles us over our cups?”—“With all my heart,” said Aeschines.—“Recollect, then,” said Aristippus, “that I, who am older than you, have made the first advances.” And Aeschines answered:

“You say well, by Juno, since you are far better than I; for I began the quarrel, but you begin the friendship.”

And these are the anecdotes which are told of him.

And when he said he was: “And you said that you are θεὸς,” continued his questioner; he admitted that also. “Then,” continued the other, “you are θεὸς.” And as he willingly received the title, the other laughed and said:

“But you, wretched man, according to this principle, you would also admit that you were a raven, or a hundred other things.”

One day Theodorus sat down by Euryclides the hierophant, and said to him: “Tell me now, Euryclides, who are they who behave impiously with respect to the mysteries?” And when Euryclides answered:

“Take care that you do not come to me again;”—“I never will,” he replied, “unless Ptolemy sends me.” And as Mythras, the steward of Lysimachus was present, and said: “You appear to me to be the only person who ignores both Gods and Sovereigns;”—

“How,” rejoined Theodorus, “can you say that I ignore the Gods, when I look upon you as their enemy?”

They say also that on one occasion he came to Corinth, bringing with him a great many disciples, and that Metrocles the Cynic, who was washing leeks, said to him:

But at last he went away to Cyrene, and lived there with Megas, being treated by him with the greatest distinction. And when he was first driven away from Cyrene, he is reported to have said very pleasantly:

“You do wrong, O men of Cyrene, driving me from Africa to Greece.”

But there were twenty different people of the name of Theodorus. The first was a Samian, the son of Rhoecus;

And he had a licentious daughter, who was married to a friend of his named Simias, a citizen of Syracuse. And as she would not live in an orderly manner, someone told Stilpo that she was a disgrace to him. But he said:

“She is not more a disgrace to me than I am an honor to her.”

Ptolemy Soter, it is said, received him with great honor; and when he had made himself master of Megara, he gave him money, and invited him to sail with him to Egypt.

And once he put a question to him, and offered him a fig at the same time; so he took the fig and ate it, on which Crates said: “O Hercules, I have lost my fig.”—

“Not only that,” he replied, “but you have lost your question too, of which the fig was the pledge.”

At another time, he saw Crates shivering in the winter, and said to him: “Crates, you seem to me to want a new dress,” meaning, both a new mind and a new garment; and Crates, feeling ashamed, answered him in the following parody:

And they say that once when he was conversing with Crates, he interrupted the discourse to go off and buy some fish; and as Crates tried to drag him back, and said: “You are leaving the argument;”—

“Not at all,” he replied. “I keep the argument, but I am leaving you; for the argument remains, but the fish will be sold to someone else.”

There are nine dialogues of his extant, written in a frigid style: The Moschus; the Aristippus or Callias; the Ptolemy; the Choerecrates; the Metrocles; the Anaximenes; the Epigenes; the one entitled To My Daughter, and the Aristotle.

On another occasion, he said to a profligate man who was giving himself airs:

“Do not you know that the cabbage is not the only plant that has a pleasant juice, but that radishes have it also?”

And once, hearing a young man talk very loudly, he said: “See whom you have behind you.”

For when the king was celebrating a festival at the beginning of the month, and had invited them as he did all the other philosophers, Menedemus said:

“If the assemblage of such men as are met here today is good, a festival like this ought to be celebrated every day: but if it is not good, even once is too often.”

And as the tyrant made answer to this speech, “that he kept this festival in order to have leisure in it to listen to the philosophers,” he behaved with even more austerity than usual, arguing, even while the feast was going on, that it was …

and when he said further that he ought to put an end to the doubt by answering explicitly yes or no,

“It would be absurd,” he rejoined, “to comply with your conditions, when I can stop you at the entrance.”

When Bion was attacking the soothsayers with great perseverance, he said that he was killing the dead over again. And once, when he heard someone assert that the greatest good was to succeed in everything that one desires; he said:

When Bion was attacking the soothsayers with great perseverance, he said that he was killing the dead over again. And once, when he heard someone assert that the greatest good was to succeed in everything that one desires; he said:

“It is a much greater good to desire what is proper.”

But Antigonus of Carystus tells us that he never wrote or composed any work, and never maintained any principle tenaciously. But in cross-questioning he was so contentious as to get quite black in the face before he went away.

and having fallen sick at that place, he was cured by the priests by the application of sea water, in reference to which he said:

The sea doth wash away all human evils.

And he said too that according to Homer all the Egyptians were physicians. Plato had also formed the idea of making the acquaintance of the Magi; but he abandoned it on account of the wars in Asia.

But Antisthenes was annoyed, and composed a dialogue against Plato, which he entitled Sathon, after which they were always enemies to one another; and they say that Socrates having heard Plato read the Lysis, said,

“O Hercules! what a number of lies the young man has told about me.”

For he had set down a great many things as sayings of Socrates which he never said.

and he said that it was never decorous to drink to the degree of drunkenness, except at the festivals of the God who had given men wine. He also disapproved of much sleeping; accordingly in his Laws he says:

“No one while sleeping is good for anything.”

Another saying of his was: “That the pleasantest of all things to hear was the truth;” but others report this saying thus: “That the sweetest of all things was to speak truth.” And of truth he speaks thus in his Laws:

Another saying of his was: “That the pleasantest of all things to hear was the truth;” but others report this saying thus: “That the sweetest of all things was to speak truth.” And of truth he speaks thus in his Laws:

“Truth, my friend, is a beautiful and a durable thing; but it is not easy to persuade men of this fact.”

He used also to wish to leave a memorial of himself behind, either in the hearts of his friends, or in his books.

“But the habit,” rejoined Plato, “is not a trifle.” On one occasion he was asked whether there would be any monument of him, as of his predecessors in philosophy? and he answered:

“A man must first make a name, and the monument will follow.”

Once, when Xenocrates came into his house, he desired him to scourge one of his slaves for him, for that he himself could not do it because he was in a passion; and that at another time he said to one of his slaves:

and that at another time he said to one of his slaves: “I should beat you if I were not in a passion.”

Having got on horseback he dismounted again immediately, saying that he was afraid that he should be infected with horse-pride.

He used to advise people who got drunk to look in the glass, and then they would abandon their unseemly habit;

And they say that once, when he was being borne in a carriage into the Academy, he met Diogenes, and said: “Hail;” and Diogenes replied:

“I will not say hail to you, who, though in such a state as you are, endure to live.”

And at last in despair he put an end to his life, being a man of a great age. And we have written this epigram on him:

He was by nature of a lazy disposition, so that they say that Plato said once, when comparing him to Aristotle:

“The one requires the spur, and the other the bridle.”

And on another occasion, he said: “What a horse and what an ass am I dressing opposite to one another!”

In other respects Xenocrates was always of a solemn and grave character, so that Plato was continually saying to him:

“Xenocrates, sacrifice to the Graces.”

And he spent the greater part of his time in the Academy, and whenever he was about to go into the city, they say all the turbulent and quarrelsome rabble in the city used to make way for him to pass by.

To one who had never learnt music, or geometry, or astronomy, but who wished to become his disciple, he said:

“Be gone, for you have not yet the handles of philosophy.”

But some say that he said: “Be gone, for I do not card wool here.” And when Dionysius said to Plato that someone would cut off his head, he, being present, showed his own, and said: “Not before they have cut off mine.”

No sweet or washy liquor, but purest Pramnian wine.

And he used to say that Homer was an epic Sophocles, and Sophocles a tragic Homer.

And he died when he was very old, of decline, having left behind him a great number of writings. And there is this epigram of ours upon him:

On this occasion, as he avoided all discussion during the continuance of the banquet, when Aridelus proposed to him a question which required some deliberation, and entreated him to discourse upon it, it is said that he replied:

“But this is more especially the business of philosophy, to know the proper time for everything.”

With reference to the charge that was brought against him of being a popularity hunter, Timon speaks, among other matters, mentioning it in the following manner:

And there is a very witty saying of his recorded: For when someone asked him once, why people left other schools to go to the Epicureans, but no one left the Epicureans to join other sects, he replied,

“People sometimes make eunuchs of men, but no one can ever make a man out of an eunuch.”

At last, when he was near his end, he left all his property to his brother Pylades, because he, without the knowledge of Maereas, had taken him to Chios and had brought him from thence to Athens.

that beauty was a good which concerned others rather than oneself; that riches were the sinews of business. To a man who had squandered his estate he said: “The earth swallowed up Amphiaraus, but you have swallowed up the earth.”

Another saying of his was that it was a great evil not to be able to bear evil.

And he condemned those who burnt the dead as though they felt nothing, and then mocked them as though they did feel.

And he used to blame Socrates, saying that if he derived no advantage from Alcibiades he was foolish, and if he never derived any advantage from him he then deserved no credit.

He used to say that the way to the shades below was easy; and accordingly, that people went there with their eyes shut.

He used to blame Alcibiades, saying that while he was a boy he seduced husbands from their wives, and when he had become a young man he seduced the wives from their husbands.

He used to say that the way to the shades below was easy; and accordingly, that people went there with their eyes shut.

He used to blame Alcibiades, saying that while he was a boy he seduced husbands from their wives, and when he had become a young man he seduced the wives from their husbands.

While most of the Athenians at Rhodes practiced rhetoric, he himself used to give lectures on philosophical subjects; and to one who blamed him for this he said: “I have bought wheat, and I sell barley.”

While most of the Athenians at Rhodes practiced rhetoric, he himself used to give lectures on philosophical subjects; and to one who blamed him for this he said:

“I have bought wheat, and I sell barley.”

It was a saying of his that the inhabitants of the shades below would be more punished if they carried water in buckets that were whole, than in such as were bored. To a chattering fellow who was soliciting him for aid, he said:

And he left behind him many memorials of himself in the way of writings, and also many apothegms full of useful sentiments. As for instance, once when he was reproved for having failed to charm a young man, he replied:

“You cannot possibly draw up cheese with a hook before it has got hard.”

On another occasion he was asked who was the most miserable of men, and replied: “He who has set his heart on the greatest prosperity.” When he was asked whether it was advisable to marry (for this answer also is attributed to him), he replied:

He said that glory was the mother of years; that beauty was a good which concerned others rather than oneself; that riches were the sinews of business. To a man who had squandered his estate he said:

“The earth swallowed up Amphiaraus, but you have swallowed up the earth.”

Another saying of his was that it was a great evil not to be able to bear evil. And he condemned those who burnt the dead as though they felt nothing, and then mocked them as though they did feel.

Once when he was at sea in the company of some wicked men, he fell into the hands of pirates; and when the rest said: “We are undone, if we are known.”—“But I,” said he, “am undone if we are not known.”

He used to say that self-conceit was the enemy of progress.

Of a rich man who was mean and niggardly, he said: “That man does not possess his estate, but his estate possesses him.”

and when the rest said: “We are undone, if we are known.”—“But I,” said he, “am undone if we are not known.” He used to say that self-conceit was the enemy of progress. Of a rich man who was mean and niggardly, he said:

“That man does not possess his estate, but his estate possesses him.”

He used to say that stingy men took care of their property as if it was their own, but derived no advantage from it as if it belonged to other people.

There is a witty saying which is attributed to Lacydes.

For they say that when Attalus sent for him, he answered that statues ought to be seen at a distance.

On another occasion, as it is reported, he was studying geometry very late in life, and some said to him: “Is it then a time for you to be learning now?”—“If it is not,” he replied, “when will it be?”

He read all the books of the Stoics with great care, and especially those of Chrysippus; and then he wrote replies to them, but did it at the same time with such modesty that he used to say:

“If Chrysippus had not lived, I should never have existed.”

He was a man of as great industry as ever existed;

He appears to have been beset with fears of death, as he was continually saying:

“Nature, who has put this frame together, will also dissolve it.”

And learning that Antipater had died after having taken poison, he felt a desire to imitate the boldness of his departure, and said: “Give me some too.” And when they asked: “What?”—“Some mead,” said he.

He seceded from Plato while he was still alive; so that they tell a story that he said:

“Aristotle has kicked us off just as chickens do their mother after they have been hatched.”

But Hermippus says in his Lives, that while he was absent on an embassy to Philip on behalf of the Athenians, Xenocrates became the president of the school in the Academy;

He was once asked what those who tell lies gain by it.

“They gain this,” said he, “that when they speak truth they are not believed.”

On one occasion he was blamed for giving alms to a worthless man, and he replied: “I did not pity the man, but his condition.”

He was accustomed continually to say to his friends and pupils wherever he happened to be: “That sight receives the light from the air which surrounds it, and in like manner the soul receives the light from the science.”

Very often, when he was inveighing against the Athenians, he would say that they had invented both wheat and laws, but that they used only the wheat and neglected the laws.

It was a saying of his that the roots of education were bitter, but the fruit sweet.

Very often, when he was inveighing against the Athenians, he would say that they had invented both wheat and laws, but that they used only the wheat and neglected the laws.

It was a saying of his that the roots of education were bitter, but the fruit sweet.

Once he was asked what grew old most speedily, and he replied: “Gratitude.”

It was a saying of his that the roots of education were bitter, but the fruit sweet.

Once he was asked what grew old most speedily, and he replied: “Gratitude.”

On another occasion the question was put to him, what hope is? and his answer was: “The dream of a waking man.”

Once he was asked what grew old most speedily, and he replied: “Gratitude.”

On another occasion the question was put to him, what hope is? and his answer was: “The dream of a waking man.”

Diogenes once offered him a dry fig, and as he conjectured that if he did not take it the cynic had a witticism ready prepared, he accepted it, and then said that Diogenes had lost his joke and his fig too;

and that Aristotle called beauty “The gift of a fair appearance,” that Socrates called it “A short-lived tyranny;” Plato, “The privilege of nature;” Theophrastus, “A silent deceit;” Theocritus, “An ivory mischief;” Carneades, “A sovereignty which stood in need of no guards.”

On one occasion he was asked how much educated men were superior to those uneducated. “As much,” said he, “as the living are to the dead.”

It was a saying of his that education was an ornament in prosperity, and a refuge in adversity. And that those parents who gave their children a good education deserved more honor than those who merely beget them:

And that those parents who gave their children a good education deserved more honor than those who merely beget them: for that the latter only enabled their children to live, but the former gave them the power of living well.

When a man boasted in his presence that he was a native of an illustrious city, he said: “That is not what one ought to look at, but whether one is worthy of a great city.”

He was once asked what a friend is; and his answer was: “One soul abiding in two bodies.”

When a man boasted in his presence that he was a native of an illustrious city, he said: “That is not what one ought to look at, but whether one is worthy of a great city.”

He was once asked what a friend is; and his answer was: “One soul abiding in two bodies.”

It was a saying of his that some men were as stingy as if they expected to live forever, and some as extravagant as if they expected to die immediately.

He was once asked what a friend is; and his answer was: “One soul abiding in two bodies.”

It was a saying of his that some men were as stingy as if they expected to live forever, and some as extravagant as if they expected to die immediately.

When he was asked why people like to spend a great deal of their time with handsome people: “That,” said he, “is a question fit for a blind man to ask.”

When he was asked why people like to spend a great deal of their time with handsome people: “That,” said he, “is a question fit for a blind man to ask.”

The question was once put to him, what he had gained by philosophy; and the answer he made was this: “That I do without being commanded, what others do from fear of the laws.”

He was once asked what his disciples ought to do to get on; and he replied: “Press on upon those who are in front of them, and not wait for those who are behind to catch them.”

Phavorinus, in the second book of his Commentaries, says that he was constantly repeating:

“The man who has friends has no friend.”

And this sentiment is to be found also in the seventh book of the Ethics.

He used to say that it was better to trust to a horse without a bridle than to a discourse without arrangement. And once, when a man preserved a strict silence during the whole of a banquet, he said to him:

“If you are an ignorant man, you are acting wisely; but if you have had any education, you are behaving like a fool.”

And a very favorite expression of his was that time was the most valuable thing that a man could spend.

And once, when a man preserved a strict silence during the whole of a banquet, he said to him: “If you are an ignorant man, you are acting wisely; but if you have had any education, you are behaving like a fool.”

And a very favorite expression of his was that time was the most valuable thing that a man could spend.

He died when he was of a great age, having lived eighty-five years, when he had only rested from his labors a short time. And we have composed the following epigram on him:

The following very practical apothegms of his are quoted:

He used to say that it was better to trust to a horse without a bridle than to a discourse without arrangement.

And once, when a man preserved a strict silence during the whole of a banquet, he said to him: “If you are an ignorant man, you are acting wisely; but if you have had any education, you are behaving like a fool.”

But Heraclides, in his Epitome of the Successions of Sotion, says that Ptolemy wished to transmit the kingdom to Philadelphus, and that Demetrius dissuaded him from doing so by the argument:

“If you give it to another, you will not have it yourself.”

And when Menander, the comic poet, had an information laid against him at Athens (for this is a statement which I have heard), he was very nearly convicted for no other reason but that he was a friend of Demetrius.

“But they have not thrown down my virtues, on account of which they erected them.” He used to say that the eyebrows were not an insignificant part of a man, for that they were able to overshadow the whole life.

Another of his sayings was that it was not Plutus alone who was blind, but Fortune also, who acted as his guide.

Another, that reason had as much influence on government as steel had in war. On one occasion, when he saw a debauched young man, he said: “There is a square Mercury with a long robe, a belly, and a beard.”

Another of his sayings was that it was not Plutus alone who was blind, but Fortune also, who acted as his guide.

Another, that reason had as much influence on government as steel had in war.

On one occasion, when he saw a debauched young man, he said: “There is a square Mercury with a long robe, a belly, and a beard.”

Another, that reason had as much influence on government as steel had in war. On one occasion, when he saw a debauched young man, he said:

“There is a square Mercury with a long robe, a belly, and a beard.”

It was a favorite saying of his that in the case of men elated with pride one ought to cut something off their height, and leave them their spirit.

When he was told that the Athenians had thrown down his statues, he said:

“But they have not thrown down my virtues, on account of which they erected them.”

He used to say that the eyebrows were not an insignificant part of a man, for that they were able to overshadow the whole life.

“An aged monkey is not easily caught; He’s caught indeed, but only after a time.”

And he added, “Heraclides knows nothing of letters, and has no shame.”

And there were fourteen persons of the name of Heraclides: First, this man of whom we are speaking; the second was a fellow citizen of his, who composed songs for Pyrrhic dances, and other trifles;

Being once reproached as not being the son of two free citizens, he said: “

And I am not the son of two people skilled in wrestling; nevertheless, I am a skillful wrestler.

” On one occasion he was asked why he had but few disciples, and said: “Because I drove them away with a silver rod.” When he was asked why he reproved his pupils with bitter language, he said:

“And I am not the son of two people skilled in wrestling; nevertheless, I am a skillful wrestler.” On one occasion he was asked why he had but few disciples, and said: “

Because I drove them away with a silver rod.

” When he was asked why he reproved his pupils with bitter language, he said: “Physicians too use severe remedies for their patients.” Once he saw an adulterer running away, and said: “O unhappy man! how much danger could you have avoided for one obol!”

nevertheless, I am a skillful wrestler.” On one occasion he was asked why he had but few disciples, and said: “Because I drove them away with a silver rod.” When he was asked why he reproved his pupils with bitter language, he said: “

Physicians too use severe remedies for their patients.

” Once he saw an adulterer running away, and said: “O unhappy man! how much danger could you have avoided for one obol!” He used to say, as Hecaton tells us in his Apothegms: “That it was better to fall among crows, than among flatterers;

“Because I drove them away with a silver rod.” When he was asked why he reproved his pupils with bitter language, he said: “Physicians too use severe remedies for their patients.” Once he saw an adulterer running away, and said: “

O unhappy man! how much danger could you have avoided for one obol!

” He used to say, as Hecaton tells us in his Apothegms: “That it was better to fall among crows, than among flatterers; for that they only devour the dead, but the others devour the living.”

He was also the first person who ever gave a definition of discourse, saying: “Discourse is that which shows what anything is or was.” And he used continually to say: “

I would rather go mad than feel pleasure.

” And: “One ought to attach oneself to such women as will thank one for it.” He said once to a youth from Pontus, who was on the point of coming to him to be his pupil, and was asking him what things he wanted:

“If you marry a handsome woman, she will be common; if an ugly woman, she will be a punishment to you.” He was told once that Plato spoke ill of him, and he replied: “

It is a royal privilege to do well, and to be evil spoken of.

” When he was being initiated into the mysteries of Orpheus, and the priest said that those who were initiated enjoyed many good things in the shades below—“Why, then,” said he, “do not you die?”

On one occasion one of his friends was lamenting to him that he had lost his memoranda, and he said to him: “

You ought to have written them on your mind, and not on paper.

” A favorite saying of his was: “That envious people were devoured by their own disposition, just as iron is by rust.” Another was: “That those who wish to be immortal ought to live piously and justly.” He used to say too:

On one occasion one of his friends was lamenting to him that he had lost his memoranda, and he said to him: “You ought to have written them on your mind, and not on paper.” A favorite saying of his was: “

That envious people were devoured by their own disposition, just as iron is by rust.

” Another was: “That those who wish to be immortal ought to live piously and justly.” He used to say too: “That cities were ruined when they were unable to distinguish worthless citizens from virtuous ones.”

“Give us a song,” and he replied: “Do you play us a tune on the flute.” When Diogenes asked him for a tunic, he bade him fold his cloak. He was asked on one occasion what learning was the most necessary, and he replied: “

To unlearn one’s bad habits.

” And he used to exhort those who found themselves ill spoken of, to endure it more than they would anyone’s throwing stones at them. He used to laugh at Plato as conceited;

and he said this all the more, because Plato kept continually praising the horse. At another time, he had gone to see him when he was ill, and when he saw there a dish in which Plato had been sick, he said: “

I see your bile there, but I do not see your conceit.

” He used to advise the Athenians to pass a vote that asses were horses; and, as they thought that irrational, he said: “Why, those whom you make generals have never learnt to be really generals, they have only been voted such.”

“I see your bile there, but I do not see your conceit.” He used to advise the Athenians to pass a vote that asses were horses; and, as they thought that irrational, he said: “

Why, those whom you make generals have never learnt to be really generals, they have only been voted such.

”

“I am sadly afraid that I must have done some wicked thing.” One of his favorite sayings was: “That the fellowship of brothers of one mind was stronger than any fortified city.” He used to say: “

That those things were the best for a man to take on a journey, which would float with him if he were shipwrecked.

” He was once reproached for being intimate with wicked men, and said: “Physicians also live with those who are sick, and yet they do not catch fevers.”

He used to say: “That those things were the best for a man to take on a journey, which would float with him if he were shipwrecked.” He was once reproached for being intimate with wicked men, and said: “

Physicians also live with those who are sick, and yet they do not catch fevers.

” He used to say “that it was an absurd thing to clean a cornfield of tares, and in war to get rid of bad soldiers, and yet not to rid oneself in a city of the wicked citizens.”

On one occasion he was being praised by some wicked men, and said: “

I am sadly afraid that I must have done some wicked thing.

” One of his favorite sayings was: “That the fellowship of brothers of one mind was stronger than any fortified city.” He used to say:

When he was asked what advantage he had ever derived from philosophy, he replied: “

The advantage of being able to converse with myself.

” At a drinking party, a man once said to him: “Give us a song,” and he replied: “Do you play us a tune on the flute.” When Diogenes asked him for a tunic, he bade him fold his cloak.

A man said to him one day: “Many people praise you.”—“Why, what evil,” said he, “have I done?” When he turned the rent in his cloak outside, Socrates seeing it said to him, “

I see your vanity through the hole in your cloak.

” On another occasion, the question was put to him by someone, as Phanias relates in his treatise on the Philosophers of the Socratic school, what a man could do to show himself an honorable and a virtuous man; and he replied:

“Have you no need of a friend?” Once too he came to see him with a sword in his hand; and when Antisthenes said: “Who can deliver me from this suffering?” he, pointing to the sword, said: “This can.” But he rejoined: “

I said from suffering, but not from life

;” for he seemed to bear his disease the more calmly from his love of life. And there is an epigram on him written by ourselves, which runs thus:

but as he repelled him, because he admitted no one, he at last forced his way to him by his pertinacity. And once, when he raised his stick at him, he put his head under it and said: “

Strike, for you will not find any stick hard enough to drive me away as long as you continue to speak.

” And from this time forth he was one of his pupils; and being an exile, he naturally betook himself to a simple mode of life.

On one occasion Plato had invited some friends who had come to him from Dionysius to a banquet, and Diogenes trampled on his carpets and said: “Thus I trample on the empty pride of Plato;” and Plato made him answer: “

How much arrogance are you displaying, O Diogenes! when you think that you are not arrogant at all.

” But, as others tell the story, Diogenes said: “Thus I trample on the pride of Plato;” and that Plato rejoined: “With quite as much pride yourself, O Diogenes.” Sotion too, in his fourth book, states that the Cynic made the following speech to Plato:

He used also to say: “That the musicians fitted the strings to the lyre properly, but left all the habits of their soul ill-arranged.” And: “

That mathematicians kept their eyes fixed on the sun and moon, and overlooked what was under their feet.

”—“That orators were anxious to speak justly, but not at all about acting so.” Also: “That misers blamed money, but were preposterously fond of it.”

And: “That mathematicians kept their eyes fixed on the sun and moon, and overlooked what was under their feet.”—“That orators were anxious to speak justly, but not at all about acting so.” Also: “

That misers blamed money, but were preposterously fond of it.

” He often condemned those who praise the just for being superior to money, but who at the same time are eager themselves for great riches.

but when again he beheld interpreters of dreams, and soothsayers, and those who listened to them, and men puffed up with glory or riches, then he thought that there was not a more foolish animal than man.” Another of his sayings was: “

That he thought a man ought oftener to provide himself with a reason than with a halter.

” On one occasion, when he noticed Plato at a very costly entertainment tasting some olives, he said: “O you wise man! why, after having sailed to Sicily for the sake of such a feast, do you not now enjoy what you have before you?”

And that while he was living with him, Xeniades once asked him how he should bury him, and he said: “On my face;” and when he was asked why, he said: “

Because, in a little while, everything will be turned upside down.

” And he said this because the Macedonians were already attaining power and becoming a mighty people, from having been very inconsiderable.

But some tell this story of Aristippus. Once, he called out: “Holloa, men.” And when some people gathered round him in consequence, he drove them away with his stick, saying: “

I called men, and not dregs.

” This anecdote I have derived from Hecaton, in the first book of his Apothegms. They also relate that Alexander said that if he had not been Alexander, he should have liked to be Diogenes.

but that none of those who praised them dared to go out hunting with him. A man once said to him: “I conquered men at the Pythian games;” on which he said: “

I conquer men, but you only conquer slaves.

” When some people said to him: “You are an old man, and should rest for the remainder of your life.”—“Why so?”

Once, while he was sitting in the sun in the Craneum, Alexander was standing by, and said to him: “Ask any favor you choose of me.” And he replied: “

Cease to shade me from the sun.

” On one occasion a man was reading some long passages, and when he came to the end of the book and showed that there was nothing more written: “Be of good cheer, my friends,” exclaimed Diogenes, “I see land.”

“Ask any favor you choose of me.” And he replied: “Cease to shade me from the sun.” On one occasion a man was reading some long passages, and when he came to the end of the book and showed that there was nothing more written:

“Be of good cheer, my friends,” exclaimed Diogenes, “I see land.”

A man once proved to him syllogistically that he had horns, so he put his hand to his forehead and said: “I do not see them.”

“See, even Diogenes maintains his favorites.” Once when he was leaving the bath, and a man asked him whether many men were bathing, he said: “No;” but when a number of people came out, he confessed that there were a great many.

When Plato called him a dog, he said: “Undoubtedly, for I have come back to those who sold me.”

Plato defined man thus: “Man is a two-footed, featherless animal,” and was much praised for the definition; so Diogenes plucked a cock and brought it into his school and said: “This is Plato’s man.” On which account this addition was made to the definition:

Plato defined man thus: “Man is a two-footed, featherless animal,” and was much praised for the definition; so

Diogenes plucked a cock and brought it into his school and said: “This is Plato’s man.”

On which account this addition was made to the definition: “With broad flat nails.” A man once asked him what was the proper time for supper, and he made answer: “If you are a rich man, whenever you please;

“This is Plato’s man.” On which account this addition was made to the definition: “With broad flat nails.” A man once asked him what was the proper time for supper, and he made answer: “

If you are a rich man, whenever you please; and if you are a poor man, whenever you can.

” When he was at Megara he saw some sheep carefully covered over with skins, and the children running about naked; and so he said: “It is better at Megara to be a man’s ram, than his son.”

“If you are a rich man, whenever you please; and if you are a poor man, whenever you can.” When he was at Megara he saw some sheep carefully covered over with skins, and the children running about naked; and so he said: “

It is better at Megara to be a man’s ram, than his son.

” A man once struck him with a beam, and then said: “Take care.”—“What,” said he, “are you going to strike me again?” He used to say that the demagogues were the servants of the people; and garlands the blossoms of glory.

A man once struck him with a beam, and then said: “Take care.”—“What,” said he, “are you going to strike me again?” He used to say that the demagogues were the servants of the people; and garlands the blossoms of glory.

Having lighted a candle in the daytime, he said: “I am looking for a man.”

On one occasion he stood under a fountain, and as the bystanders were pitying him, Plato, who was present, said to them: “If you wish really to show your pity for him, come away;”

and he will do this, if you are crippled in your hands.” On one occasion, when he had seen the hieromnemones leading off one of the stewards who had stolen a goblet, he said: “

The great thieves are carrying off the little thief.

” At another time, seeing a young man throwing stones at a cross, he said: “Well done, you will be sure to reach the mark.” Once too, some boys got round him and said: “We are taking care that you do not bite us;”

accordingly, when a youth had broken his cask they beat him, and gave Diogenes another. And Dionysius, the Stoic, says that after the battle of Chaeronea he was taken prisoner and brought to Philip, and being asked who he was, replied: “

A spy, to spy upon your insatiability.

” And Philip marvelled at him and let him go. Once, when Alexander had sent a letter to Athens to Antipater, by the hands of a man named Athlias, he, being present, said, “Athlias from Athlius, by means of Athlias to Athlius.”

“You are a silly fellow, Hegesias, for you will not take painted figs, but real ones; and yet you overlook the genuine practice of virtue, and seek for what is merely written.” A man once reproached him with his banishment, and his answer was: “

You wretched man, that is what made me a philosopher.

” And when, on another occasion, someone said to him: “The people of Sinope condemned you to banishment,” he replied: “And I condemned them to remain where they were.”

A man once reproached him with his banishment, and his answer was: “You wretched man, that is what made me a philosopher.” And when, on another occasion, someone said to him: “The people of Sinope condemned you to banishment,” he replied: “

And I condemned them to remain where they were.

” Once he saw a man who had been victor at the Olympic games, feeding (νέμοντα) sheep, and he said to him: “You have soon come across my friend from the Olympic games, to the Nemean.”

“You have soon come across my friend from the Olympic games, to the Nemean.” When he was asked why athletes are insensible to pain, he said: “

Because they are built up of pork and beef.

”

Having been in a very dirty bath, he said: “I wonder where the people who bathe here clean themselves.” When all the company was blaming an indifferent harp-player, he alone praised him, and being asked why he did so, he said: “

Because, though he is such as he is, he plays the harp and does not steal.

” He saluted a harp player who was always left alone by his hearers, with: “Good morning, cock;” and when the man asked him: “Why so?” he said: “Because you, when you sing, make everyone get up.”

Having been in a very dirty bath, he said: “

I wonder where the people who bathe here clean themselves.

” When all the company was blaming an indifferent harp-player, he alone praised him, and being asked why he did so, he said: “Because, though he is such as he is, he plays the harp and does not steal.”

“Because, though he is such as he is, he plays the harp and does not steal.” He saluted a harp player who was always left alone by his hearers, with: “Good morning, cock;” and when the man asked him: “Why so?” he said: “

Because you, when you sing, make everyone get up.

” When a young man was one day making a display of himself, he, having filled the bosom of his robe with lupins, began to eat them; and when the multitude looked at him, he said:

He once asked for a statue; and being questioned as to his reason for doing so, he said: “I am practising disappointment.” Once he was begging of someone (for he did this at first out of actual want), he said: “

If you have given to anyone else, give also to me; and if you have never given to anyone, then begin with me.

” On one occasion, he was asked by the tyrant: “What sort of brass was the best for a statue?” and he replied: “That of which the statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton are made.” When he was asked how Dionysius treats his friends, he said:

On one occasion, he was asked by the tyrant: “What sort of brass was the best for a statue?” and he replied: “That of which the statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton are made.” When he was asked how Dionysius treats his friends, he said: “

Like bags; those which are full he hangs up, and those which are empty he throws away.

” A man who was lately married put an inscription on his house: “Hercules Callinicus, the son of Jupiter, lives here; let no evil enter.” And so Diogenes wrote in addition: “An alliance is made after the war is over.”

A man who was lately married put an inscription on his house: “Hercules Callinicus, the son of Jupiter, lives here; let no evil enter.” And so Diogenes wrote in addition: “An alliance is made after the war is over.”

He used to say that covetousness was the metropolis of all evils.

Seeing on one occasion a profligate man in an inn eating olives, he said: “If you had dined thus, you would not have supped thus.” One of his apothegms was that good men were the images of the Gods;

He once asked for a statue; and being questioned as to his reason for doing so, he said: “

I am practising disappointment.

” Once he was begging of someone (for he did this at first out of actual want), he said: “If you have given to anyone else, give also to me; and if you have never given to anyone, then begin with me.”

Having heard once that Didymon the adulterer had been caught in the fact, he said: “He deserves to be hung by his name.” When the question was put to him, why gold is of a pale color, he said: “

Because it has so many people plotting against it.

” When he saw a woman in a litter, he said: “The cage is not suited to the animal.” And seeing a runaway slave sitting on a well, he said: “My boy, take care you do not fall in.”

When a man said to him, that it was a bad thing to live: “Not to live,” said he, “but to live badly.” When some people were advising him to make search for a slave who had run away, he said: “

It would be a very absurd thing for Manes to be able to live without Diogenes, but for Diogenes not to be able to live without Manes.

” When he was dining on olives, a cheesecake was brought in, on which he threw the olive away, saying:

On one occasion, he was asked by a certain person: “What sort of a man, O Diogenes, do you think Socrates?” and he said: “A madman.” Another time the question was put to him, when a man ought to marry? and his reply was: “

Young men ought not to marry yet, and old men never ought to marry at all.

” When asked what he would take to let a man give him a blow on the head? he replied: “A helmet.” Seeing a youth smartening himself up very carefully, he said to him: “If you are doing that for men, you are miserable;

he replied: “A helmet.” Seeing a youth smartening himself up very carefully, he said to him: “If you are doing that for men, you are miserable; and if for women, you are profligate.” Once he saw a youth blushing, and addressed him: “

Courage, my boy, that is the complexion of virtue.

” Having once listened to two lawyers, he condemned them both; saying: “That the one had stolen the thing in question, and that the other had not lost it.” When asked what wine he liked to drink, he said: “That which belongs to another.”

and if for women, you are profligate.” Once he saw a youth blushing, and addressed him: “Courage, my boy, that is the complexion of virtue.” Having once listened to two lawyers, he condemned them both; saying: “

That the one had stolen the thing in question, and that the other had not lost it.

” When asked what wine he liked to drink, he said: “That which belongs to another.” A man said to him one day: “Many people laugh at you.”—“But I,” he replied, “am not laughed down.”

“There were times when I did what I did not wish to, but that is not the case now.” When he went to Myndus, he saw some very large gates, but the city was a small one, and so he said: “

Oh men of Myndus, shut your gates, lest your city should steal out.

” On one occasion, he saw a man who had been detected stealing purple, and so he said:

The question was put to him, whether wise men ate cheesecakes, and he replied: “They eat everything, just as the rest of mankind.” When asked why people give to beggars and not to philosophers, he said: “

Because they think it possible that they themselves may become lame and blind, but they do not expect ever to turn out philosophers.

” He once begged of a covetous man, and as he was slow to give, he said: “Man, I am asking you for something to maintain me (εἰς τροφὴν) and not to bury me (εἰς ταφὴν).”

When Craterus entreated him to come and visit him, he said: “

I would rather lick up salt at Athens than enjoy a luxurious table with Craterus.

” On one occasion, he met Anaximenes the orator, who was a fat man, and thus accosted him: “Pray give us, who are poor, some of your belly; for by so doing you will be relieved yourself, and you will assist us.”

and as Anaximenes was indignant at this, he said: “See, one pennyworth of salt fish has put an end to the lecture of Anaximenes.” Being once reproached for eating in the marketplace, he made answer: “

I did, for it was in the marketplace that I was hungry.

” Some authors also attribute the following repartee to him. Plato saw him washing vegetables, and so, coming up to him, he quietly accosted him thus:

he said: “I am going from the men’s apartments to the women’s.” Another time he was returning from the Olympic games, and when someone asked him whether there had been a great multitude there, he said: “

A great multitude, but very few men.

” He used to say that debauched men resembled figs growing on a precipice, the fruit of which is not tasted by men, but devoured by crows and vultures. When Phryne had dedicated a golden statue of Venus at Delphi, he wrote upon it:

A certain person was admiring the offerings in the temple at Samothrace, and he said to him: “

They would have been much more numerous if those who were lost had offered them instead of those who were saved;

” but some attribute this speech to Diagoras the Melian. Once he saw a handsome youth going to a banquet, and said to him: “You will come back worse (χείρων);”

“I am Alexander, the great king.”—“And I,” said he, “am Diogenes the dog.” And when he was asked to what actions of his it was owing that he was called a dog, he said: “

Because I fawn upon those who give me anything, and bark at those who give me nothing, and bite the rogues.

” On one occasion he was gathering some of the fruit of a fig-tree, and when the man who was guarding it told him a man hung himself on this tree the other day: “I, then,” said he, “will now purify it.”

Once Alexander the Great came and stood by him, and said: “I am Alexander, the great king.”—

“And I,” said he, “am Diogenes the dog.”

And when he was asked to what actions of his it was owing that he was called a dog, he said: “Because I fawn upon those who give me anything, and bark at those who give me nothing, and bite the rogues.”

And when some people were praising a man who had given him something, he said to them: “And do not you praise me who was worthy to receive it?” He was asked by someone to give him back his cloak, but he replied: “

If you gave it me, it is mine; and if you only lent it me, I am using it.

” A supposititious son (ὑποβολιμαῖος) of somebody once said to him that he had gold in his cloak: “No doubt,” said he, “that is the very reason why I sleep with it under my head (ὑποβεβλημένος).”

“No doubt,” said he, “that is the very reason why I sleep with it under my head (ὑποβεβλημένος).” When he was asked what advantage he had derived from philosophy, he replied: “

If no other, at least this, that I am prepared for every kind of fortune.

” The question was put to him what countryman he was, and he replied: “A Citizen of the world.” Some men were sacrificing to the Gods to prevail on them to send them sons, and he said:

When the Athenians had voted that Alexander was Bacchus, he said to them: “Vote too that I am Serapis.” When a man reproached him for going into unclean places, he said: “

The sun too penetrates into privies, but is not polluted by them.

” When supping in a temple, as some dirty loaves were set before him, he took them up and threw them away, saying that nothing dirty ought to come into a temple; and when someone said to him:

“Now I shall be out of harm’s way.” He used to say that those who were in love were disappointed in regard of the pleasure they expected. When he was asked whether death was an evil, he replied: “

How can that be an evil which we do not feel when it is present?

” When Alexander was once standing by him, and saying: “Do not you fear me?” He replied: “No; for what are you, a good or an evil?” And as he said that he was good: “Who, then,” said Diogenes, “fears the good?”

and when the crier asked him what art he understood, he said: “That of governing men.” And presently pointing out a Corinthian, very carefully dressed (the same Xeniades whom we have mentioned before), he said: “

Sell me to that man; for he wants a master.

” Accordingly Xeniades bought him and carried him away to Corinth; and then he made him tutor of his sons, and committed to him the entire management of his house.

There is a line, too, which tells us that he gained from philosophy:

A peck of lupins, and to care for nobody.

This, too, is attributed to him:

This, too, is attributed to him:

Hunger checks love; and should it not, time does.

If both should fail you, then a halter choose.

He used to abuse prostitutes designedly, for the purpose of practising himself in enduring reproaches. When Demetrius Phalereus sent him some loaves and wine, he attacked him for his present, saying: “

I wish that the fountains bore loaves

;” and it is notorious that he was a water drinker.

One of his sayings was: “

That a man ought to study philosophy, up to the point of looking on generals and donkey-drivers in the same light.

” Another was that those who live with flatterers are as desolate as calves when in the company of wolves;

they also wish to abolish geometry and music, and everything of that kind. Accordingly, Diogenes said once to a person who was showing him a clock: “

It is a very useful thing to save a man from being too late for supper.

” And once when a man made an exhibition of musical skill before him, he said:

and when he saw that he was ashamed, and that he endeavored to hide it, he struck the jar with his staff and broke it; and as Zeno fled away, and the lentil porridge ran all down his legs, Crates called after him: “

Why do you run away, my little Phoenician, you have done no harm?

” For some time then he continued a pupil of Crates, and when he wrote his treatise entitled the Republic, some said, jokingly, that he had written it upon the tail of the dog.

But at last he left Crates and became the pupil of the philosophers whom I have mentioned before, and continued with them for twenty years. So that it is related that he said, “

I now find that I made a prosperous voyage when I was wrecked.

” But some affirm that he made this speech in reference to Crates. Others say that while he was staying at Athens he heard of a shipwreck, and said: “Fortune does well in having driven us on philosophy.”

And it is said that after the death of Zeno, Antigonus said: “

What a spectacle have I lost.

” On which account he employed Thrason, their ambassador, to entreat of the Athenians to allow him to be buried in the Ceramicus. And when he was asked why he had such an admiration for him, he replied:

“What a spectacle have I lost.” On which account he employed Thrason, their ambassador, to entreat of the Athenians to allow him to be buried in the Ceramicus. And when he was asked why he had such an admiration for him, he replied: “

Because, though I gave him a great many important presents, he was never elated, and never humbled.

”

I allude for instance to the way in which he spoke of a man who took exceeding pains in setting himself off, for as he was crossing a gutter with great hesitation, he said: “

He is right to look down upon the mud, for he cannot see himself in it.

” And when some Cynic one day said that he had no oil in his cruise, and asked him for some, he refused to give him any, but bade him go away and consider which of the two was the more impudent.

Once when a young man was talking a great deal, he said: “

Your ears have run down into your tongue.

” On one occasion a very handsome man was saying that a wise man did not appear to him likely to fall in love: “Then,” said he, “I cannot imagine anything that will be more miserable than you good-looking fellows.”

When Dionysius Metathemenus asked him why he was the only person whom he did not correct, he replied: “Because I have no confidence in you.” A young man was talking a great deal of nonsense, and he said to him: “

This is the reason why we have two ears and only one mouth, that we may hear more and speak less.

”

And one of his sayings used to be that nothing was more unfriendly to the comprehension of the accurate sciences than poetry; and that there was nothing that we stood in so much need of as time.

When he was asked what a friend was, he replied: “Another I.”

They say that he was once scourging a slave whom he had detected in theft; and when he said to him: “It was fated that I should steal;” he rejoined: “Yes, and that you should be beaten.”

but some report this as if he had said that the voice is the flower of beauty. On one occasion, when he saw a slave belonging to one of his friends severely bruised, he said to his friend: “

I see the footsteps of your anger.

” He once accosted a man who was all over unguents and perfumes: “Who is this who smells like a woman?” When Dionysius Metathemenus asked him why he was the only person whom he did not correct, he replied:

now the people who asked him this were ambassadors who had come from Ptolemy, and who wished to know what report they were to make of him to the king. He was once asked how he felt when people abused him, and he said: “

As an ambassador feels when he is sent away without an answer.

” Apollonius of Tyre tells us that when Crates dragged him by the cloak away from Stilpo, he said: “O Crates, the proper way to take hold of philosophers is by the ears; so now do you convince me and drag me by them;

When he was asked why he, who was generally austere, relaxed at a dinner party, he said: “

Lupins too are bitter, but when they are soaked they become sweet.

” And Hecaton, in the second book of his Apothegms, says that in entertainments of that kind, he used to indulge himself freely. And he used to say that it was better to trip with the feet than with the tongue.

And he discarded altogether the topic of physics, and of logic, saying that the one was above us, and that the other had nothing to do with us; and that the only branch of philosophy with which we had any real concern was ethics.

He also said that dialectic reasonings were like cobwebs; which, although they seem to be put together on principles of art, are utterly useless.

And he did not introduce many virtues into his scheme, as Zeno did; nor one virtue under a great many names, as the Megaric philosophers did; but defined virtue as consisting in behaving in a certain manner with reference to a certain thing.

“Alas! here is an argument for Arcesilaus against the evidence of his senses.” On another occasion, when a philosopher of the Academy said that he did not comprehend anything, he said to him:

“Do not you even see the man who is sitting next to you?”

And as he said that he did not, he said:

Dionysius, the Deserter, as he was called, asserted that pleasure was the chief good, from the circumstance of his being afflicted with a complaint in his eyes.

For, as he suffered severely, he could not pronounce pain a thing indifferent.

He was the son of Theophantus, and a native of Heraclea.

He did not even object to the name when he was called an ass; but only said that he was the only animal able to bear the burdens which Zeno put upon him. And once, when he was reproached as a coward, he said:

“That is the reason why I make but few mistakes.”

He used to say, in justification of his preference of his own way of life to that of the rich: “That while they were playing at ball, he was earning money by digging hard and barren ground.” And he very often used to blame himself.

“That while they were playing at ball, he was earning money by digging hard and barren ground.” And he very often used to blame himself. And once Ariston heard him doing so and said: “Who is it that you are reproaching?” and he replied:

“An old man who has grey hair, but no brains.”

When someone once said to him that Arcesilaus did not do what he ought: “Desist,” he replied, “and do not blame him; for, if he destroys duty as far as his words go, at all events he establishes it by his actions.”

“That it would be a preposterous thing for Bacchus and Hercules to bear being ridiculed by the poets without any expression of anger, and for him to be indignant at any chance attack.” He used also to say:

“That the Peripatetics were in the same condition as lyres, which though they utter sweet notes, do not hear themselves.”

And it is said that when he asserted that, on the principles of Zeno, one could judge of a man’s character by his looks, some witty young men brought him a profligate fellow, having a hardy look from continual exercise in the fields, and requested …

In most respects I am a happy man, Excepting where Cleanthes is concerned; For in that matter I am far from fortunate.

And he had such a high reputation as a dialectician that most people thought that if there were such a science as dialectics among the Gods, it would be in no respect different from that of Chrysippus.

But though he was so eminently able in matter, he was not perfect in style.

… Athenian, in his Collection of Dogmas, wishing to assert that what Epicurus had written out of his own head, and without any quotations to support his arguments, was a great deal more than all the books of Chrysippus, speaks thus (I give his exact words):

“For if anyone were to take away from the books of Chrysippus all the passages which he quotes from other authors, his paper would be left empty.”

These are the words of Apollodorus; but the old woman who lived with him, as Diocles reports, used to say that he wrote five hundred lines every day.

in reference to which circumstance, Carneades called him Crypsippus. He was once reproached by someone for not attending the lectures of Ariston, who was drawing a great crowd after him at the time; and he replied:

“If I had attended to the multitude I should not have been a philosopher.”

And once, when he saw a dialectician pressing hard on Cleanthes, and proposing sophistical fallacies to him, he said: “Cease to drag that old man from more important business, and propose these questions to us who are young.”

And at drinking parties he used to behave quietly, moving his legs about however, so that a female slave once said:

“It is only the legs of Chrysippus that are drunk.”

And he had so high an opinion of himself, that once, when a man asked him: “To whom shall I entrust my son?” he said:

And thus he spoke on this subject. But in the three treatises above mentioned, the following principles are laid down by Pythagoras generally:

He forbids men to pray for anything in particular for themselves, because they do not know what is good for them.

He calls drunkenness an expression identical with ruin, and rejects all superfluity, saying: “That no one ought to exceed the proper quantity of meat and drink.” And on the subject of venereal pleasures, he speaks thus:

and in autumn and spring in a lesser degree. But the practice is pernicious at every season, and is never good for the health.” And once, when he was asked when a man might indulge in the pleasures of love, he replied:

“Whenever you wish to be weaker than yourself.”

And he divides the life of man thus: A boy for twenty years, a young man (νεάνισκος) for twenty years, a middle-aged man (νεανίας) for twenty years, an old man for twenty years. And these different ages correspond proportionably to the seasons:

He was never known to have eaten too much, or to have drunk too much, or to indulge in the pleasures of love.

He abstained wholly from laughter, and from all such indulgences as jests and idle stories.

And when he was angry, he never chastised anyone, whether slave or freeman. He used to call admonishing, feeding storks.

He abstained wholly from laughter, and from all such indulgences as jests and idle stories. And when he was angry, he never chastised anyone, whether slave or freeman.

He used to call admonishing, feeding storks.

He used to practice divination, as far as auguries and auspices go, but not by means of burnt offerings, except only the burning of frankincense. And all the sacrifices which he offered consisted of inanimate things.

And that he used to forbid them to offer victims to the Gods, ordering them to worship only at those altars which were unstained with blood. He forbade them also to swear by the Gods, saying:

“That every man ought so to exercise himself, as to be worthy of belief without an oath.”

He also taught men that it behooved them to honor their elders, thinking that which was precedent in point of time more honorable; just as in the world, the rising of the sun was more so than the setting;

And he says that Agrigentum was a very large city, since it had eight hundred thousand inhabitants; on which account Empedocles, seeing the people immersed in luxury, said:

“The men of Agrigentum devote themselves wholly to luxury as if they were to die tomorrow, but they furnish their houses as if they were to live forever.”

It is said that Cleomenes, the rhapsodist, sung this very poem, called the Purifications, at Olympia; at least this is the account given by Phavorinus, in his Commentaries.

And the moon is disk-shaped; and that the heaven itself is like crystal; and that the soul inhabits every kind of form of animals and plants. Accordingly, he thus expresses himself:

For once I was a boy, and once a girl.

A bush, a bird, a fish who swims the sea,

For the only piece of real wisdom is to know that idea which by itself will govern everything on every occasion.” He used to say, too, that Homer deserved to be expelled from the games and beaten, and Archilochus likewise. He used also to say:

“It is more necessary to extinguish insolence than to put out a fire.”

Another of his sayings was: “The people ought to fight for the law as for their city.” He also attacks the Ephesians for having banished his companion Hermodorus, when he says:

And having retired to the temple of Diana with his children, he began to play at dice; and when all the Ephesians flocked round him, he said:

“You wretches, what are you wondering at? is it not better to do this, than to meddle with public affairs in your company?”

And at last, becoming a complete misanthrope, he used to live spending his time in walking about the mountains, feeding on grasses and plants, and in consequence of these habits, he was attacked by the dropsy, and so then he returned to the city and …

Some call it a science of morals, the arrangement of the changes of unity and of everything.

They say that when he was asked why he preserved silence, he said: “That you may talk.”

Darius was very desirous to enjoy his conversation; and wrote thus to him:

When Empedocles said to him that the wise man was undiscoverable, he replied:

“Very likely; for it takes a wise man to discover a wise man.”

And Sotion says that he was the first person who asserted that everything is incomprehensible. But he is mistaken in this.

They say that when he was reproached, he was indignant; and that when someone blamed him, he replied:

“If when I am reproached, I am not angered, then I shall not be pleased when I am praised.”

We have already said in our account of the Citiaean, that there were eight Zenos; but this one flourished about the seventy-ninth olympiad.

He further asserts that it is well known that he went to Athens, and as he despised glory, he did not desire to be known; and that he became acquainted with Socrates, without Socrates knowing who he was.

“For I came,” says he, “to Athens, and no one knew me.”

—“If,” says Thrasylus, “the Rivals is really the work of Plato, then Democritus must be the anonymous interlocutor, who is introduced in that dialogue, besides Oenopides and Anaxagoras, the one I mean who, in the conversation with Socrates, is arguing about philosophy, and whom the …

For he was thoroughly acquainted with physics, and ethics, and mathematics, and the whole encyclic system, and indeed he was thoroughly experienced and skillful in every kind of art. He it was who was the author of the saying:

“Speech is the shadow of action.”

But Demetrius Phalereus, in his Defense of Socrates, affirms that he never came to Athens at all.

And he used to employ them in his arguments, being the first person who did so. But he began something in this manner:

“Man is the measure of all things: of those things which exist as he is; and of those things which do not exist as he is not.”

And he used to say that nothing else was soul except the senses, as Plato says, in the Theaetetus; and that everything was true. And another of his treatises he begins in this way:

And he used to say that nothing else was soul except the senses, as Plato says, in the Theaetetus; and that everything was true. And another of his treatises he begins in this way:

“Concerning the Gods, I am not able to know to a certainty whether they exist or whether they do not. For there are many things which prevent one from knowing, especially the obscurity of the subject, and the shortness of the life of man.”

And on account of this beginning of his treatise, he was banished by the Athenians. And they burnt his books in the marketplace, calling them in by the public crier, and compelling all who possessed them to surrender them.

And then they say that he, disregarding this punishment, uttered that celebrated saying:

“Beat the bag of Anaxarchus, but you will not beat Anaxarchus himself.”

And then, when Nicocreon commanded that his tongue should be cut out, it is said that he bit it off, and spit it at him. And we have written an epigram upon him in the following terms:

And it is said that he carried his indifference so far that he even washed a pig. And once, when he was very angry about something connected with his sister (and her name was Philista), and someone took him up, he said:

“The display of my indifference does not depend on a woman.”

On another occasion, when he was driven back by a dog which was attacking him, he said to someone who blamed him for being discomposed: “That it was a difficult thing entirely to put off humanity;

But if anyone supposes, they add, that there are principles which require no demonstration, that man deceives himself strangely, not seeing that it is necessary for him in the first place to establish this point, that they contain their proof in themselves.

For a man cannot prove that there are four elements because there are four elements.

Besides, if particular proofs are denied in a complex demonstration, it must follow that the whole demonstration is also incorrect. Again, if we are to know that an argument is really a demonstrative proof, we must have a test of truth;

As to man himself, he disagrees both with himself and with others, as the diversity of laws and customs proves.

The senses are deceivers, and reason disagrees with itself.

Cataleptic perception is judged of by the intellect, and the intellect changes in various manners; accordingly, we can never find any positive criterion, and in consequence, truth itself wholly eludes our search.

For to say that is a different kind of statement from saying that the world is spherical; for the one fact is not evident, while the other statements are mere admissions.

While, therefore, we say that we define nothing, we do not even say that as a definition.

Again, the dogmatic philosophers say that the Skeptics overthrow all life when they deny everything of which life consists. But the Skeptics say that they are mistaken;

And this jesting manner was habitual with him. Accordingly he once said to a man who was surprised at everything:

“Why do you not wonder that we three men have only four eyes between us?”

for he himself had only one eye, no more had Dioscorides, his pupil; but the man to whom he was speaking had his sight unimpaired. On another occasion, he was asked by Arcesilaus why he had come from Thebes, and he said:

for he himself had only one eye, no more had Dioscorides, his pupil; but the man to whom he was speaking had his sight unimpaired. On another occasion, he was asked by Arcesilaus why he had come from Thebes, and he said:

“To laugh at you all when I see you face to face.”

But though he attacked Arcesilaus in his Silloi, he has praised him in the book entitled the Funeral Banquet of Arcesilaus.

And in his letter to Pythocles, he writes:

“And, my dear boy, avoid all sorts of education.”

Epictetus also attacks him as a most debauched man, and reproaches him most vehemently, and so does Timocrates, the brother of Metrodorus, in his treatise entitled the Merry Guests, and this Timocrates had been a disciple in his school, though he afterwards abandoned it;

And Epicurus also speaks of Nausiphanes in his letters, in the following terms: “These things led him on to such arrogance of mind, that he abused me and called me a schoolmaster.”

He used also to call him Lungs, and Blockhead, and Humbug, and Fornicator.

And he used to call Plato’s followers Flatterers of Dionysius, but Plato himself he called Golden. Aristotle he called a debauchee and a glutton, saying that he joined the army after he had squandered his patrimony, and sold drugs.

And Epicurus also speaks of Nausiphanes in his letters, in the following terms: “These things led him on to such arrogance of mind, that he abused me and called me a schoolmaster.” He used also to call him Lungs, and Blockhead, and Humbug, and Fornicator.

And he used to call Plato’s followers Flatterers of Dionysius, but Plato himself he called Golden.

Aristotle he called a debauchee and a glutton, saying that he joined the army after he had squandered his patrimony, and sold drugs.

He also tells us that Epicurus would not allow his followers to throw their property into a common stock, as Pythagoras did, who said that the possessions of friends were held in common.

For he said that such a doctrine as that was suited rather for those who distrusted one another; and that those who distrusted one another were not friends.

But he himself in his letters says that he is content with water and plain bread, and adds: “Send me some Cytherean cheese, that if I wish to have a feast, I may have the means.”

and that those who distrusted one another were not friends. But he himself in his letters says that he is content with water and plain bread, and adds:

“Send me some Cytherean cheese, that if I wish to have a feast, I may have the means.”

This was the real character of the man who laid down the doctrine that pleasure was the chief good; whom Athenaeus thus mentions in an epigram:

And when he was at the point of death, he wrote the following letter to Idomeneus:

We have written this letter to you on a happy day to us, which is also the last day of our life.

For strangury has attacked me, and also a dysentery, so violent that nothing can be added to the violence of my sufferings. But the cheerfulness of my mind, which arises from the recollection of all my philosophical contemplations, counterbalances all these afflictions.

We have written this letter to you on a happy day to us, which is also the last day of our life. For strangury has attacked me, and also a dysentery, so violent that nothing can be added to the violence of my sufferings.

But the cheerfulness of my mind, which arises from the recollection of all my philosophical contemplations, counterbalances all these afflictions.

And I beg you to take care of the children of Metrodorus, in a manner worthy of the devotion shown by the youth to me, and to philosophy.

and that in the case of others, on the contrary, the differences of the center produce the changes which we observe.

Besides, to assign one single cause to all these phenomena, when the experience of our senses suggests us several, is folly.

It is the conduct of ignorant astronomers covetous of a vain knowledge, who, assigning imaginary causes to facts, wish to leave wholly to the Deity the care of the government of the universe.

They also assert that he will be indifferent to the study of oratory.

Marriage, say they, is never any good to a man, and we must be quite content if it does no harm; and the wise man will never marry or beget children, as Epicurus himself lays it down, in his Doubts and in his treatises on Nature.

Still, under certain circumstances of life, he will forsake these rules and marry. Nor will he ever indulge in drunkenness, says Epicurus in his Banquet, nor will he entangle himself in affairs of state (as he says in his first book on Lives).

nor can he hinder himself in his progress towards wisdom. That the wise man, however, cannot exist in every state of body, nor in every nation.

That even if the wise man were to be put to the torture, he would still be happy.

That the wise man will only feel gratitude to his friends, but to them equally whether they are present or absent. Nor will he groan and howl when he is put to the torture.

All faults are not equal. Health is good for some people, but a matter of indifference to others. Courage is a quality which does not exist by nature, but which is engendered by a consideration of what is suitable.

Friendship is caused by one’s wants; but it must be begun on our side.

For we sow the earth; and friendship arises from a community of, and participation in, pleasures. Happiness must be understood in two senses: the highest happiness, such as is that of God, which admits of no increase;

Courage is a quality which does not exist by nature, but which is engendered by a consideration of what is suitable. Friendship is caused by one’s wants; but it must be begun on our side.

For we sow the earth; and friendship arises from a community of, and participation in, pleasures.

Happiness must be understood in two senses: the highest happiness, such as is that of God, which admits of no increase; and another kind, which admits of the addition or abstraction of pleasures. The wise man may raise statues if it suits his inclination;

We must now proceed to his letter:

Let no one delay to study philosophy while he is young, and when he is old let him not become weary of the study; for no man can ever find the time unsuitable or too late to study the health of his soul.

And he who asserts either that it is not yet time to philosophize, or that the hour is passed, is like a man who should say that the time is not yet come to be happy, or that it is too late.

Let no one delay to study philosophy while he is young, and when he is old let him not become weary of the study; for no man can ever find the time unsuitable or too late to study the health of his soul.

And he who asserts either that it is not yet time to philosophize, or that the hour is passed, is like a man who should say that the time is not yet come to be happy, or that it is too late.

So that both young and old should study philosophy, the one in order that, when he is old, he may be young in good things through the pleasing recollection of the past, and the other in order that he may be at the same time …

For there are Gods; for our knowledge of them is indistinct. But they are not of the character which people in general attribute to them; for they do not pay a respect to them which accords with the ideas that they entertain of them.

And that man is not impious who discards the Gods believed in by the many, but he who applies to the Gods the opinions entertained of them by the many.

For the assertions of the many about the Gods are not anticipations (προλήψεις), but false opinions (ὑπολήψεις). And in consequence of these, the greatest evils which befall wicked men, and the benefits which are conferred on the good, are all attributed to the Gods;

for they connect all their ideas of them with a comparison of human virtues, and everything which is different from human qualities, they regard as incompatible with the divine nature.

Accustom yourself also to think death a matter with which we are not at all concerned, since all good and all evil is in sensation and since death is only the privation of sensation.

On which account, the correct knowledge of the fact that death is no concern of ours makes the mortality of life pleasant to us, inasmuch as it sets forth no illimitable time, but relieves us for the longing for immortality.

but, just as he chooses food, not preferring that which is most abundant but that which is nicest; so too, he enjoys time, not measuring it as to whether it is of the greatest length, but as to whether it is most agreeable.

And he who enjoins a young man to live well and an old man to die well is a simpleton, not only because of the constantly delightful nature of life, but also because the care to live well is identical with the care to die well.

And he was still more wrong who said:

On which account, the correct knowledge of the fact that death is no concern of ours makes the mortality of life pleasant to us, inasmuch as it sets forth no illimitable time, but relieves us for the longing for immortality.

For there is nothing terrible in living to a man who rightly comprehends that there is nothing terrible in ceasing to live; so that he was a silly man who said that he feared death, not because it would grieve him when it was present, but because it did grieve him while it was future.

For it is very absurd that that which does not distress a man when it is present, should afflict him when only expected. Therefore the most formidable of all evils, death, is nothing to us, since, when we exist, death is not present to us;

so that he was a silly man who said that he feared death, not because it would grieve him when it was present, but because it did grieve him while it was future.

For it is very absurd that that which does not distress a man when it is present, should afflict him when only expected.

Therefore the most formidable of all evils, death, is nothing to us, since, when we exist, death is not present to us; and when death is present, then we have no existence. It is no concern then either of the living or of the dead;

For it is very absurd that that which does not distress a man when it is present, should afflict him when only expected.

Therefore the most formidable of all evils, death, is nothing to us, since, when we exist, death is not present to us; and when death is present, then we have no existence.

It is no concern then either of the living or of the dead; since to the one it has no existence, and the other class has no existence itself.

and we think many pains better than pleasures, when a greater pleasure follows them, if we endure the pain for a time.

Every pleasure is therefore a good on account of its own nature, but it does not follow that every pleasure is worthy of being chosen; just as every pain is an evil, and yet every pain must not be avoided.

But it is right to estimate all these things by the measurement and view of what is suitable and unsuitable; for at times we may feel the good as an evil, and at times, on the contrary, we may feel the evil as good.

but we mean the freedom of the body from pain, and of the soul from confusion.

For it is not continued drinkings and revels, or the enjoyment of female society, or feasts of fish and other such things as a costly table supplies, that make life pleasant, but sober contemplation, which examines into the reasons for all choice and avoidance, and which puts to flight the vain opinions from which the greater part of the confusion arises which troubles the soul.

Now, the beginning and the greatest good of all these things is prudence, on which account prudence is something more valuable than even philosophy, inasmuch as all the other virtues spring from it, teaching us that it is not possible to live pleasantly unless one …

and that everything which is natural is easily provided, and what is useless is not easily procured.

And simple flavors give as much pleasure as costly fare when everything that can give pain, and every feeling of want, is removed; and corn and water give the most extreme pleasure when anyone in need eats them.

To accustom oneself, therefore, to simple and inexpensive habits is a great ingredient in the perfecting of health, and makes a man free from hesitation with respect to the necessary uses of life.