“Dire need and baneful paunch me overcome; From which all evils come.” Besides, Callias the comic poet having written: “With madmen, all men must be mad, they say,”-- Menander, in the _Poloumenoi_, expresses himself similarly, saying: “The presence of wisdom is not always suitable: One sometimes must with others play[935] the fool.” And Antimachus of Teos having said: “From gifts, to mortals many ills arise,”-- Augias composed the line: “For gifts men’s mind and acts deceive.” And Hesiod having said: “Than a good wife, no man a better thing Ere gained; than a bad wife, a worse,”-- Simonides said: “A better prize than a good wife no man Ere gained, than a bad one nought worse.” Again, Epicharmas having said: “As destined long to live, and yet not long, Think of thyself,”-- Euripides writes: “Why? seeing the wealth we have uncertain is, Why don’t we live as free from care, as pleasant As we may?” Similarly also, the comic poet Diphilus having said: “The life of men is prone to change,”-- Posidippus says: “No man of mortal mould his life has passed From suffering free. Nor to the end again Has continued prosperous.” Similarly[936] speaks to thee Plato, writing of man as a creature subject to change. Again, Euripides having said: “Oh life to mortal men of trouble full, How slippery in everything art thou! Now grow’st thou, and thou now decay’st away. And there is set no limit, no, not one, For mortals of their course to make an end, Except when Death’s remorseless final end Comes, sent from Zeus,”-- Diphilus writes: “There is no life which has not its own ills, Pains, cares, thefts, and anxieties, disease; And Death, as a physician, coming, gives Rest to their victims in his quiet sleep.”[937] Furthermore, Euripides having said: “Many are fortune’s shapes, And many things contrary to expectation the gods perform,”-- The tragic poet Theodectes similarly writes: “The instability of mortals’ fates.” And Bacchylides having said: “To few[938] alone of mortals is it given To reach hoary age, being prosperous all the while, And not meet with calamities,”-- Moschion, the comic poet, writes: “But he of all men is most blest, Who leads throughout an equal life.” And you will find that, Theognis having said: “For no advantage to a man grown old A young wife is, who will not, as a ship The helm, obey,”-- Aristophanes, the comic poet, writes: “An old man to a young wife suits but ill.” For Anacreon, having written: “Luxurious love I sing, With flowery garlands graced, He is of gods the king, He mortal men subdues,”-- Euripides writes: “For love not only men attacks, And women; but disturbs The souls of gods above, and to the sea Descends.”