The Lives and Opinions of Eminent PhilosophersDiogenes Laertius
Philosophy
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
Diogenes Laertius
Philosophers, Ancient -- Biography; Philosophy, Ancient
on disgracing the garb of nature.” When people were speaking of the
happiness of Callisthenes, and saying what splendid treatment he received
from Alexander, he replied, “The man then is wretched, for he is forced
to breakfast and dine whenever Alexander chooses.” When he was in want of
money, he said that be reclaimed it from his friends and did not beg for
it.
On one occasion he was working with his hands in the market-place, and
said, “I wish I could rub my stomach in the same way, and so avoid
hunger.” When he saw a young man going with some satraps to supper, he
dragged him away and led him off to his relations, and bade them take
care of him. He was once addressed by a youth beautifully adorned, who
asked him some question; and he refused to give him any answer, till
he satisfied him whether he was a man or a woman. And on one occasion,
when a youth was playing the cottabus in the bath, he said to him, “The
better you do it, the worse you do it.” Once at a banquet, some of the
guests threw him bones, as if he had been a dog; so he, as he went away,
put up his leg against them as if he had been a dog in reality. He used
to call the orators, and all those who speak for fame τρισάνθρωποι
(thrice men), instead of τρισάθλιοι (thrice miserable). He said that a
rich but ignorant man, was like a sheep with a golden fleece. When he
saw a notice on the house of a profligate man, “To be sold.” “I knew,”
said he, “that you who are so incessantly drunk, would soon vomit up
your owner.” To a young man, who was complaining of the number of people
who sought his acquaintance, he said, “Do not make such a parade of your
vanity.”
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