Greek Texts & Translations

"The roots of education," he said, "are bitter, but the fruit is sweet." Being asked, "What is it that soon grows old?" he answered, "Gratitude." He was asked to define hope, and he replied, "It is a waking dream." When Diogenes offered him dried figs, he saw that he had prepared something caustic to say if he did not take them; so he took them and said Diogenes had lost his figs and his jest into the bargain. And on another occasion he took them when they were offered, lifted them up aloft, as you do babies, and returned them with the exclamation, "Great is Diogenes." Three things he declared to be indispensable for education: natural endowment, study, and constant practice. On hearing that some one abused him, he rejoined, "He may even scourge me so it be in my absence." Beauty he declared to be a greater recommendation than any letter of introduction. 5.1.19 Others attribute this definition to Diogenes; Aristotle, they say, defined good looks as the gift of god, Socrates as a short-lived reign, Plato as natural superiority, Theophrastus as a mute deception, Theocritus as an evil in an ivory setting, Carneades as a monarchy that needs no bodyguard. Being asked how the educated differ from the uneducated, "As much," he said, "as the living from the dead." ^note He used to declare education to be an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity. Teachers who educated children deserved, he said, more honour than parents who merely gave them birth; for bare life is furnished by the one, the other ensures a good life. To one who boasted that he belonged to a great city his reply was, "That is not the point to consider, but who it is that is worthy of a great country." 5.1.20 To the query, "What is a friend?" his reply was, "A single soul dwelling in two bodies." Mankind, he used to say, were divided into those who were as thrifty as if they would live for ever, and those who were as extravagant as if they were going to die the next day. When some one inquired why we spend much time with the beautiful, "That," he said, "is a blind man's question." When asked what advantage he had ever gained from philosophy, he replied, "This, that I do without being ordered what some are constrained to do by their fear of the law." ^note The question being put, how can students make progress, he replied, "By pressing hard on those in front and not waiting for those behind." To the chatterbox who poured out a flood of talk upon him and then inquired, "Have I bored you to death with my chatter?" he replied, "No, indeed; for I was not attending to you." 5.1.21 When some one accused him of having given a subscription to a dishonest man - for the story is also told in this form ^note - "It was not the man," said he, "that I assisted, but humanity." To the question how we should behave to friends, he answered, "As we should wish them to behave to us." Justice he defined as a virtue of soul which distributes according to merit. Education he declared to be the best provision for old age. Favorinus in the second book of his Memorabilia mentions as one of his habitual sayings that "He who has friends can have no true friend." Further, this is found in the seventh book of the Ethics. ^note These then are the sayings attributed to him.

His writings are very numerous and, considering the man's all-round excellence, I deemed it incumbent on me to catalogue them ^note:

Of Justice, four books.

On Poets, three books.

On Philosophy, three books.

Of the Statesman, two books.

On Rhetoric, or Grylus, one book.

Nerinthus, one book.

The Sophist, one book.

Menexenus, one book.

Concerning Love, one book.

Symposium, one book.

Of Wealth, one book.

Exhortation to Philosophy, one book.

Of the Soul, one book.

Of Prayer, one book.

On Noble Birth, one book.

On Pleasure, one book.

Alexander, or a Plea for Colonies, one book.

On Kingship, one book.

On Education, one book.

Of the Good, three books.

Extracts from Plato's Laws, three books.

Extracts from the Republic, two books.

Of Household Management, one book.

Of Friendship, one book.

On being or having been affected, one book.

Of Sciences, one book.

On Controversial Questions, two books.

Solutions of Controversial Questions, four books.

Sophistical Divisions, four books.

On Contraries, one book.

On Genera and Species, one book.

On Essential Attributes, one book.

Three note - books on Arguments for Purposes of Refutation.

Propositions concerning Virtue, two books.

Objections, one book.

On the Various Meanings of Terms or Expressions where a Determinant is added, one book.

Of Passions or of Anger, one book.

Five books of Ethics.

On Elements, three books.

Of Science, one book.

Of Logical Principle, one book.

Logical Divisions, seventeen books.

Concerning Division, one book.

On Dialectical Questioning and Answering, two books.

Of Motion, one book.

Propositions, one book.

Controversial Propositions, one book.

Syllogisms, one book.

Eight books of Prior Analytics.

Two books of Greater Posterior Analytics.

Of Problems, one book.

Eight books of Methodics.

Of the Greater Good, one book.

On the Idea, one book.

Definitions prefixed to the Topics, seven books.

Two books of Syllogisms.