The Lives and Opinions of Eminent PhilosophersDiogenes Laertius
Philosophy
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
Diogenes Laertius
Philosophers, Ancient -- Biography; Philosophy, Ancient
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; “And yet,” said he, “he lives in a more
expensive manner than I do, so that there is no impossibility in a
person’s living both expensively and well at the same time.” 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, “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?” 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.” When some one said that he
always saw the philosophers at the doors of the rich men, he said, “And
the physicians also are always seen at the doors of their patients; but
still no one would choose for this reason to be an invalid rather than a
physician.”
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; and in the same way it is not those who know a great many
things, but they who know what is useful who are valuable men.” 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 some one in what respect his son would be better if he
received a careful education, he replied, “If he gets no other good, at
all events, when he is at the theatre, he will not be one stone sitting
upon another.” Once when some one 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.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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