Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Arcesilaus had a peculiar habit while conversing of using the expression, "My opinion is," and "So and so will not agree to this."

Arcesilaus. xii.

Bion used to say that the way to the shades below was easy; he could go there with his eyes shut.

Bion. iii.

Once when Bion was at sea in the company of some wicked men, he fell into the hands of pirates; and when the rest said, "We are undone if we are known," "But I," said he, "am undone if we are not known.”

Ibid.

Of a rich man who was niggardly he said, "That man does not own his estate, but his estate owns him." Ibid.

Bion insisted on the principle that "The property of friends is common." 1

ix.

Very late in life, when he was studying geometry, some one said to Lacydes, "Is it then a time for you to be learning now?" "If it is not," he replied, "when will it be?" Lacydes. v.

Aristotle was once asked what those who tell lies gain by it. Said he, "That when they speak truth they are not believed."

Aristotle. xi.

The question was put to him, what hope is; and his answer was, "The dream of a waking man.'

[ocr errors]

Ibid.

He used to say that personal beauty was a better introduction than any letter; but others say that it was Diogenes who gave this description of it, while Aristotle. called beauty "the gift of God; " that Socrates called it "a short-lived tyranny;" Theophrastus, "a silent deceit;" Theocritus, "an ivory mischief; " Carneades, a sovereignty which stood in need of no guards." Ibid.

66

1 All things are in common among friends. - DIOGENES (page 763). 2 See Prior, page 288.

8 See Publius Syrus, page 709.

On one occasion Aristotle was asked how much educated men were superior to those uneducated: "As much," said he, "as the living are to the dead." 1

Aristotle. xi.

It was a saying of his that education was an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.

Ibid.

He was once asked what a friend is, and his answer was, "One soul abiding in two bodies." 2 Ibid.

Asked what he gained from philosophy, he answered, "To do without being commanded what others do from fear of the laws."

Ibid.

The question was once put to him, how we ought to behave to our friends; and the answer he gave was, "As we should wish our friends to behave to us."

Ibid.

He used to define justice as "a virtue of the soul distributing that which each person deserved."

Ibid.

Another of his sayings was, that education was the best viaticum of old age.

Ibid.

The chief good he has defined to be the exercise of virtue in a perfect life.

xiii.

He used to teach that God is incorporeal, as Plato also asserted, and that his providence extends over all the heavenly bodies.

Ibid.

It was a favourite expression of Theophrastus that time was the most valuable thing that a man could spend. Theophrastus. x.

8

Antisthenes used to say that envious people were devoured by their own disposition, just as iron is by rust.

Antisthenes. iv.

1 Quoted with great warmth by Dr. Johnson (Boswell).- LANGTON: Collectanea.

2 See Pope, page 340.

8 See Franklin, page 361.

When he was praised by some wicked men, he said, "I am sadly afraid that I must have done some wicked thing." 1

Antisthenes. iv.

When asked what learning was the most necessary, he said, "Not to unlearn what you have learned."

Ibid.

Diogenes would frequently praise those who were about to marry, and yet did not marry. Diogenes. iv.

"Bury me on my face," said Diogenes; and when he was asked why, he replied, "Because in a little while everything will be turned upside down."

vi.

One of the sayings of Diogenes was that most men were within a finger's breadth of being mad; for if a man walked with his middle finger pointing out, folks would think him mad, but not so if it were his forefinger. Ibid. All things are in common among friends.

"Be of good cheer," said Diogenes; "I see land."

Ibid.

Ibid.

Plato having defined man to be a two-legged animal without feathers, Diogenes plucked a cock and brought it into the Academy, and said, "This is Plato's man." On which account this addition was made to the definition, "With broad flat nails."

Ibid.

A man once asked Diogenes what was the proper time for supper, and he made answer, "If you are a rich man, whenever you please; and if you are a poor man, whenever you can." 8

Ibid.

Diogenes lighted a candle in the daytime, and went round saying, "I am looking for a man."4

1 See Plutarch, page 733.

2 See Terence, page 705. Also, page 761.

Ibid.

3 The rich when he is hungry, the poor when he has anything to eat.RABELAIS book iv. chap. lxw.

[ocr errors]

4 The same is told of Æsop.

When asked what he would take to let a man give him a blow on the head, he said, "A helmet."

Diogenes. vi. Once he saw a youth blushing, and addressed him, "Courage, my boy! that is the complexion of virtue." 1

Ibid.

When asked what wine he liked to drink, he replied, "That which belongs to another."

Ibid.

Asked from what country he came, he replied, "I am a citizen of the world." 2

vi.

When a man reproached him for going into unclean places, he said, "The sun too penetrates into privies, but is not polluted by them." 3

Ibid.

Diogenes said once to a person who was showing him a dial, "It is a very useful thing to save a man from being too late for supper."

Menedemus. iii.

When Zeno was asked what a friend was, he replied, "Another I." 4

Zeno. xix.

They say that the first inclination which an animal has is to protect itself.

lii.

One ought to seek out virtue for its own sake, without being influenced by fear or hope, or by any external influence. Moreover, that in that does happiness consist.5

liii.

The Stoics also teach that God is unity, and that he is called Mind and Fate and Jupiter, and by many other names besides.

lxviii.

They also say that God is an animal immortal, rational, perfect, and intellectual in his happiness, unsusceptible of any kind of evil, having a foreknowledge of

1 See Mathew Henry, page 283. 8 See Bacon, page 169.

2 See Garrison, page 605.
4 See page 762.

5 See page 760.

the universe and of all that is in the universe; however, that he has not the figure of a man; and that he is the creator of the universe, and as it were the Father of all things in common, and that a portion of him pervades everything.

Zeno. lxxii.

But Chrysippus, Posidonius, Zeno, and Boëthus say, that all things are produced by fate. And fate is a connected cause of existing things, or the reason according to which the world is regulated.

lxxiv.

Apollodorus says, "If any one were to take away from the books of Chrysippus all the passages which he quotes from other authors, his paper would be left empty."

Chrysippus. iii. One of the sophisms of Chrysippus was, "If you have not lost a thing, you have it."

xi.

Pythagoras used to say that he had received as a gift from Mercury the perpetual transmigration of his soul, so that it was constantly transmigrating and passing into all sorts of plants or animals. Pythagoras. iv.

He calls drunkenness an expression identical with ruin.1

vi.

Among what he called his precepts were such as these: Do not stir the fire with a sword. Do not sit down on a bushel. Do not devour thy heart.2

xvii.

In the time of Pythagoras that proverbial phrase "Ipse dixit" was introduced into ordinary life.

[ocr errors]

XXV.

Xenophanes was the first person who asserted . . . that the soul is a spirit.

Xenophanes. iii.

It takes a wise man to discover a wise man.

Ibid.

Protagoras asserted that there were two sides to every question, exactly opposite to each other.

Protagoras. iii.

1 See Hall, page 457.

2 See Spenser, page 30.

8 Aurds epa (The master said so).

« AnteriorContinuar »