Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

​He also roused the spirit of the general Iphicrates by showing him the cocks of Meidias the barber flapping their wings against those of Callias. And Glauconides deemed that he ought to be secured for the city like a pheasant or a peacock. He used to say that it was astonishing that everyone could easily say how many sheep he possessed, but could not name how many friends he had acquired, so carelessly did they regard them. And seeing Euclides deeply engaged in eristic arguments, he said: "Euclides, you will be able to deal with sophists, but with human beings not at all." For he thought that hair-splitting over such matters was useless, as Plato also says in the Euthydemus.

​And when Charmides offered to give him slaves so that he might derive an income from them, he chose not to accept them; and according to some, he also disdained the beauty of Alcibiades. He praised leisure as the fairest of possessions, just as Xenophon also says in the Symposium. He used to say that there is only one good, knowledge, and only one evil, ignorance; and that wealth and noble birth possess no dignity, but on the contrary are altogether evil. At any rate, when someone told him that Antisthenes was the son of a Thracian mother, he said: "Did you think that so noble a man could have been born from two Athenians?" And when Phaedo was detained in a brothel owing to his captivity, he directed Crito to ransom him, and made a philosopher of him.

​Moreover, he even learned to play the lyre when he was already an old man, saying that there was nothing strange in thoroughly learning what one does not know. Furthermore, he danced continually, believing that such physical exercise was beneficial to the fitness of the body, as Xenophon also says in the Symposium. He also said that the divine sign forewarned him of future events; and that doing well was not a small matter, though it depended on small matters; and that he knew nothing except this very fact (that he knew nothing). He also said that those who bought early produce at a high price had given up hope of reaching the proper season. And once, when asked what was the virtue of a young man, he said: "Nothing in excess." And he said that one ought to study geometry only until one is able to take over and hand over land by measurement.

​And when Euripides said in the Auge concerning virtue: "It is best to leave these things alone, cast aside at random," he got up and walked out, saying that it was ridiculous to think it right to search for a slave that could not be found, but to leave virtue thus to perish. When asked whether to marry or not, he said: "Whichever of them you do, you will repent it." He also said that he was astonished that those who fashioned stone statues took care that the stone should be as lifelike as possible, but neglected themselves, so as not to appear like the stone. And he urged the young to look continually into the mirror, so that if they were handsome, they might become worthy of their looks; and if they were ugly, they might conceal their unsightly appearance with education.

​Having invited wealthy guests to dinner, when Xanthippe felt ashamed, he said: "Be of good cheer; for if they are reasonable, they will accommodate themselves to us; but if they are base, we will not care about them at all." He also said that other men lived in order to eat, but that he ate in order to live. In regard to the worthless mob, he said it was just as if someone rejected a single tetradrachm as counterfeit, but accepted the heap made up of such coins as genuine. And when Aeschines said: "I am poor and have nothing else, but I give you myself," he said: "Do you not perceive, then, that you are giving me the greatest things of all?" To the man who was disgruntled at being overlooked when the Thirty rose to power, he said: "Are you, then, repenting of anything?"

​To the man who said, "The Athenians have condemned you to death," he said: "And nature has condemned them." (Others, however, attribute this to Anaxagoras.) When his wife said, "You are dying unjustly," he said: "Would you, then, have wished me to die justly?" Having seemed in a dream to hear someone saying to him, "On the third day thou wouldst reach fertile Phthia," he said to Aeschines: "The day after tomorrow I shall die." And when he was about to drink the hemlock, Apollodorus offered him a fine cloak, so that he might die in it; but he said: "Why, is my own cloak suitable to live in, but not to die in?" To the man who said, "So-and-so speaks ill of you," he said: "For to speak well, he never learned."