Fragments

Perseus Greek · Perseus Greek · 171 sections

A.99.1
The anger of a monkey and the threats of a flatterer deserve equal regard.
A.100.1
Kindly receive those who are willing to give good advice, but not those who upon every occasion are eager to flatter. For the former truly see what is advantageous; but the latter consider only the opinions of their superiors, and imitate the shadows of bodies, nodding assent to what they say.
A.101.1
An adviser ought, in the first place, to have a regard to the delicacy and sense of shame of the person admonished. For they who are beyond blushing are incorrigible.
A.102.1
It is better to advise than reproach; for the one is mild and friendly, the other stern and severe; the one corrects the erring, the other only convicts them.
A.103.1
Impart to strangers and persons in need according to your ability. For he who gives nothing to the needy shall receive nothing in his own need.
A.104.1
A person once brought clothes to a pirate, who had been cast ashore, and almost killed by the severity of the weather; then carried him to his house, and furnished him with all necessaries. Being reproached by some one for doing good to the evil, I have paid this regard, answered he, not to the man, but to humanity.
A.105.1
We ought not to choose every pleasure, but that whose end is good.
A.106.1
It belongs to a wise man to resist pleasure, and to a fool to be enslaved by it.
A.107.1
In all vice, pleasure, being presented like a bait, draws sensual minds to the hook of perdition.
A.108.1
Choose rather to punish your appetites than to be punished by them.
A.109.1
No one is free who commands not himself.
A.110.1
The vine bears three clusters: the first of pleasure, the second of intoxication, the third of outrage.
A.111.1
Do not talk much over wine to show your learning, for your discourse will be unpleasing.
A.112.1
He is a drunkard who takes more than three glasses; and though he be not drunk, he has exceeded moderation.
A.113.1
Let discourse of God be renewed every day more surely than our food.
A.114.1
Think of God oftener than you breathe.
A.115.1
If you always remember that God stands by as a witness of whatever you do, either in soul or body, you will never err, either in your prayers or actions, and you will have God abiding with you.
A.116.1
As it is pleasant to view the sea from the shore, so it is pleasant to one who has escaped, to remember his past labors.
A.117.1
Law aims to benefit human life; but it cannot, when men themselves choose to suffer, for it manifests its proper virtue on condition of obedience.
A.118.1
As physicians are the preservers of the sick, so are the laws, of the injured.
A.119.1
The justest laws are the truest.
A.120.1
It is decent to yield to a law, to a ruler, and to a wiser man.
A.121.1
Things done contrary to law are to be regarded as undone.
A.122.1
In prosperity it is very easy to find a friend; in adversity, nothing is so difficult.
A.123.1
Time delivers fools from grief; and reason, wise men.
A.124.1
He is a man of sense who does not grieve for what he has not, but rejoices in what he has.
A.125.1
Epictetus being asked how a person might grieve his enemy, answered, By doing as well as possible himself.
A.126.1
Let no wise man estrange himself from the government of the state; for it is both wicked to withdraw from being useful to the needy, and cowardly to give way to the worthless. For it is foolish to choose rather to be governed ill than to govern well.
A.127.1
Nothing is more becoming a ruler than to despise no one, nor be insolent, but to preside over all impartially.
A.128.1
Any person may live happy in poverty, but few in wealth and power. So great is the advantage of poverty, that no wise man would exchange it for disreputable wealth; unless indeed Themistocles, the son of Neocles, the most wealthy of the Athenians, but poor in virtue, was better than Aristides and Socrates. But both himself and his wealth are perished, and without a name. For a bad man loses all in death; but virtue is eternal.
A.129.1
[Remember] that such is and was and will be the nature of the world, nor is it possible that things should be otherwise than they now are; and that not only men and other creatures upon earth partake of this change and transformation, but diviner things also. For indeed even the four elements are transformed and metamorphosed; and earth becomes water, and water air, and this again is transformed into other things. And the same manner of transformation happens from things above to those below. Whoever endeavors to turn his mind towards these points, and persuade himself to receive with willingness what cannot be avoided, will pass his life in moderation and harmony.
A.130.1
He who is discontented with things present and allotted is unskilled in life. But he who bears them, and the consequences arising from them, nobly and rationally, is worthy to be esteemed a good man.
A.131.1
All things serve and obey the [laws of the] universe: the earth, the sea, the sun, the stars, and the plants and animals of the earth. Our body likewise obeys the same, in being sick and well, young and old, and passing through the other changes decreed. It is therefore reasonable that what depends on ourselves, that is, our own understanding, should not be the only rebel. For the universe is powerful and superior, and consults the best for us by governing us in conjunction with the whole. And further, opposition, besides that it is unreasonable, and produces nothing except a vain struggle, throws us into pain and sorrows.
B.1.1
Moderation, as it is a short and agreeable way, brings much delight and little trouble.
B.2.1
Fortify yourself with moderation; for this is an impregnable fortress.
B.3.1
Prefer nothing to truth, not even the choicest friendship, since this borders on those passions by which justice is both confounded and darkened.
B.4.1
Truth is an immortal and an eternal thing. It bestows not a beauty which time will wither, nor a courage which may quail before a human tribunal; but only things just and lawful, from which it divides and destroys all that is unjust.
B.5.1
We should have neither a blunt sword nor a pointless speech.
B.6.1
Nature has given man one tongue, but two ears, that we may hear twice as much as we speak.
B.7.1
Nothing is in reality either pleasant or unpleasant by nature; but all things become such through habit.
B.8.1
Choose the best life; for habit will make it pleasant.
B.9.1
Choose rather to leave your children well instructed than rich. For the hopes of the wise are better than the riches of the ignorant.
B.10.1
A daughter is to a father a possession which is not his own.
B.11.1
The same person advised to bequeath modesty to children, rather than gold.
B.12.1
The reproof of a father is an agreeable medicine; for the profit is greater than the pain.
B.13.1
He who is fortunate in a son-in-law finds a son; he who is unfortunate in one loses likewise a daughter.
B.14.1
The worth of instruction, like that of gold, passes current in every place.
B.15.1
He who cultivates wisdom cultivates the knowledge of God.
B.16.1
There is no creature so beautiful as a man adorned by instruction.
B.17.1
We ought to flee the friendship of the wicked, and the enmity of the good.
B.18.1
Misfortunes test friends, and detect enemies.
B.19.1
We ought to do well by our friends when they are present, and speak well of them when they are absent.
B.20.1
Let him not think himself loved by any, who loves none.
B.21.1
We ought to choose, both for a physician and for a friend, not the most agreeable, but the most useful.
B.22.1
If you would lead a life without sorrow, regard things which will happen, as if they had already happened.
B.23.1
Be exempt from grief; not like irrational creatures, from insensibility, nor from inconsiderateness, like fools; but like a man of virtue, making reason the remedy for grief.
B.24.1
They whose minds are the least grieved by calamities, and who best meet them in action, are the greatest both in public and in private life.
B.25.1
They who are well instructed, like those who are exercised in the palaestra, if they happen to fall quickly and dexterously rise again from misfortunes.
B.26.1
We ought to call in reason, like a good physician, to our assistance in misfortune.
B.27.1
Too much intoxication from good fortune, as from drinking, makes a fool more senseless.
B.28.1
Envy is the adversary of the fortunate.
B.29.1
He who remembers what man is, can be discontented at nothing which happens.
B.30.1
A pilot and a fair wind are necessary to a happy voyage; reason and art, to a happy life.
B.31.1
Of good fortune, as of ripe fruit, we must make the most while it lasts.
B.32.1
He is unreasonable who quarrels with events which happen from natural necessity.
C.1.1
What does it signify to me, said he, whether the universe is composed of atoms or uncompounded substances, or of fire and earth? Is it not sufficient to know the essence of good and evil, and the proper bounds of the desires and aversions, and of the active powers; and by making use of these as so many certain rules, to order the conduct of life, and let go these things which are above us; which, perhaps, are incomprehensible to human understanding, but if one should suppose them ever so comprehensible, are still of doubtful benefit when comprehended. And must it not be said that he gives himself trouble to no purpose who attributes these things as essential to the character of a philosopher? What, then; is the Delphic admonition, Know thyself, superflous? No, surely, said he. What, then, does it mean? If any one should admonish a performer in a chorus to know himself, would he not take it as a hint to improve his motions?
C.2.1
The same person being asked, Wherein do the diligent have the advantage of the slothful? answered, Wherein the pious have the advantage of the impious,—in good hopes.
C.3.1
Walls give to cities, and education to minds, ornament and security.
C.4.1
When a young man was giving himself airs in a public place, and saying that he had grown wise by conversing with many wise men; I have conversed too, answered somebody, with many rich men, but I have not grown rich.
C.5.1
Socrates, being sent for by Archelaus, as designing to make him a rich man, returned him this answer: Four quarts of meal are sold at Athens for five denarii, and the fountains run with water. If what I have is not sufficient for me, yet I am sufficiently able to make a shift with that; and thus it becomes sufficient for me. Do you not perceive that it makes no difference in the goodness of Polus’s voice, whether he performs the part of Oedipus in his regal state, or whether he is a wanderer and a beggar at Colonus? And shall a brave man appear worse than Polus, and not perform well in whatever part is imposed upon him by the Deity? Shall he not imitate Odysseus, who made no worse figure in rags than in a fine purple robe?
C.6.1
There are some persons who are calmly of a high spirit, and do all the same things quietly, and as it were without anger, which those do who are hurried with strong passion. We are to guard, therefore, against the faults of such persons, as being much worse than those of violent anger. For people of the latter character are quickly satiated with vengeance; whereas the others, like persons in a slow lever, extend the excitement over a longer time.

Perseus Greek. CTS URN tlg0557.tlg003a.perseus-eng4. Via the Perseus Digital Library / Open Greek and Latin TEI corpora. Licence: Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Source.