What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee.
_Meditations. vi. 54._
How many, once lauded in song, are given over to the forgotten;
and how many who sung their praises are clean gone long ago!
_Meditations. vii. 6._
One Universe made up of all that is; and one God in it all, and
one principle of Being, and one Law, the Reason, shared by all
thinking creatures, and one Truth.
_Meditations. vii. 9._
To a rational being it is the same thing to act according to
nature and according to reason.
_Meditations. vii. 11._
Let not thy mind run on what thou lackest as much as on what thou
hast already.
_Meditations. vii. 27._
Just as the sand-dunes, heaped one upon another, hide each the
first, so in life the former deeds are quickly hidden by those
that follow after.
_Meditations. vii. 34._
The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, in so far
as it stands ready against the accidental and the unforeseen, and
is not apt to fall.
_Meditations. vii. 61._
Remember this,--that very little is needed to make a happy life.
_Meditations. vii. 67._
Remember that to change thy mind and to follow him that sets thee
right, is to be none the less the free agent that thou wast
before.
_Meditations. viii. 16._
Look to the essence of a thing, whether it be a point of
doctrine, of practice, or of interpretation.
_Meditations. viii. 22._
A man's happiness,--to do the things proper to man.
_Meditations. viii. 26._
Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in
thought.
_Meditations. viii. 51._
He that knows not what the world is, knows not where he is
himself. He that knows not for what he was made, knows not what
he is nor what the world is.
_Meditations. viii. 52._
The nature of the universe is the nature of things that are. Now,
things that are have kinship with things that are from the
beginning. Further, this nature is styled Truth; and it is the
first cause of all that is true.
_Meditations. ix. 1._
He would be the finer gentleman that should leave the world
without having tasted of lying or pretence of any sort, or of
wantonness or conceit.
_Meditations. ix. 2._
Think not disdainfully of death, but look on it with favour; for
even death is one of the things that Nature wills.
_Meditations. ix. 3._
A wrong-doer is often a man that has left something undone, not
always he that has done something.
_Meditations. ix. 5._
Blot out vain pomp; check impulse; quench appetite; keep reason
under its own control.
_Meditations. ix. 7._
Things that have a common quality ever quickly seek their kind.
_Meditations. ix. 9._
All things are the same,--familiar in enterprise, momentary in
endurance, coarse in substance. All things now are as they were
in the day of those whom we have buried.
_Meditations. ix. 14._
The happiness and unhappiness of the rational, social animal
depends not on what he feels but on what he does; just as his
virtue and vice consist not in feeling but in doing.
_Meditations. ix. 16._
Everything is in a state of metamorphosis. Thou thyself art in
everlasting change and in corruption to correspond; so is the
whole universe.
_Meditations. ix. 19._
Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any
shall note it. . . . Be satisfied with success in even the
smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.
_Meditations. ix. 29._
He that dies in extreme old age will be reduced to the same state
with him that is cut down untimely.
_Meditations. ix. 33._
Whatever may befall thee, it was preordained for thee from
everlasting.
_Meditations. x. 5._
"The earth loveth the shower," and "the holy ether knoweth what
love is."[756-1] The Universe, too, loves to create whatsoever is
destined to be made.
_Meditations. x. 21._
Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within;
there lies the power to persuade, there the life,--there, if one
must speak out, the real man.
_Meditations. x. 38._
No form of Nature is inferior to Art; for the arts merely imitate
natural forms.
_Meditations. xi. 10._
If it is not seemly, do it not; if it is not true, speak it not.
_Meditations. xii. 17._
FOOTNOTES:
[749-1] See Publius Syrus, page 712.
A similar saying falls from his lips at another time: "Let every
act and speech and purpose be framed as though this moment thou
mightest take thy leave of life."
[750-1] The translator is in doubt about this passage.
Commentators differ in regard to it, and the text may be corrupt.
[752-1] DEMOCRITUS _apud_ SENECAM: _De Ira, iii. 6; De Animi
Tranquillitate, 13._
[756-1] Fragmenta Euripidis, apud Aristotelem, N. A. viii. 1, 6.
TERTULLIAN. 160-240 A. D.
See how these Christians love one another.
_Apologeticus. c. 39._
Blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.
_Apologeticus. c. 50._
It is certain because it is impossible.[756-2]
_De Carne Christi. c. 5._
He who flees will fight again.[756-3]
_De Fuga in Persecutione. c. 10._
FOOTNOTES:
[756-2] Certum est, quia impossibile est. This is usually
misquoted, "Credo quia impossibile" (I believe it because it is
impossible).
[756-3] See Butler, pages 215, 216.
DIOGENES LAERTIUS. _Circa_ 200 A. D.
(_From "The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers." Translated by C.
D. Yonge, B. A., with occasional corrections. Bohn's Classical Library._)
Alcæus mentions Aristodemus in these lines:--
'T is money makes the man; and he who 's none
Is counted neither good nor honourable.
_Thales. vii._
Thales said there was no difference between life and death. "Why,
then," said some one to him, "do not you die?" "Because," said
he, "it _does_ make no difference."
_Thales. ix._
When Thales was asked what was difficult, he said, "To know one's
self." And what was easy, "To advise another."
_Thales. ix._
He said that men ought to remember those friends who were absent
as well as those who were present.
_Thales. ix._
The apophthegm "Know thyself" is his.[757-1]
_Thales. xiii._
Writers differ with respect to the apophthegms of the Seven
Sages, attributing the same one to various authors.
_Thales. xiv._
Solon used to say that speech was the image of actions; . . .
that laws were like cobwebs,--for that if any trifling or
powerless thing fell into them, they held it fast; while if it
were something weightier, it broke through them and was off.
_Solon. x._
Solon gave the following advice: "Consider your honour, as a
gentleman, of more weight than an oath. Never tell a lie. Pay
attention to matters of importance."
_Solon. xii._
As some say, Solon was the author of the apophthegm, "Nothing in
excess."[757-2]
_Solon. xvi._
Chilo advised, "not to speak evil of the dead."[758-1]
_Chilo. ii._
Pittacus said that half was more than the whole.[758-2]
_Pittacus. ii._
Heraclitus says that Pittacus, when he had got Alcæus into his
power, released him, saying, "Forgiveness is better than
revenge."[758-3]
_Pittacus. iii._
One of his sayings was, "Even the gods cannot strive against
necessity."[758-4]
_Pittacus. iv._
Another was, "Watch your opportunity."
_Pittacus. vii._
Bias used to say that men ought to calculate life both as if they
were fated to live a long and a short time, and that they ought
to love one another as if at a future time they would come to
hate one another; for that most men were bad.
_Bias. v._
Ignorance plays the chief part among men, and the multitude of
words;[758-5] but opportunity will prevail.
_Cleobulus. iv._
The saying, "Practice is everything," is Periander's.[758-6]
_Periander. vi._
Anarcharsis, on learning that the sides of a ship were four
fingers thick, said that "the passengers were just that distance
from death."[758-7]
_Anarcharsis. v._
He used to say that it was better to have one friend of great
value than many friends who were good for nothing.
_Anarcharsis. v._
It was a common saying of Myson that men ought not to investigate
things from words, but words from things; for that things are not
made for the sake of words, but words for things.
_Myson. iii._
Epimenides was sent by his father into the field to look for a
sheep, turned out of the road at mid-day and lay down in a
certain cave and fell asleep, and slept there fifty-seven years;
and after that, when awake, he went on looking for the sheep,
thinking that he had been taking a short nap.[759-1]
_Epimenides. ii._
There are many marvellous stories told of Pherecydes. For it is
said that he was walking along the seashore at Samos, and that
seeing a ship sailing by with a fair wind, he said that it would
soon sink; and presently it sank before his eyes. At another time
he was drinking some water which had been drawn up out of a well,
and he foretold that within three days there would be an
earthquake; and there was one.
_Pherecydes. ii._
Anaximander used to assert that the primary cause of all things
was the Infinite,--not defining exactly whether he meant air or
water or anything else.
_Anaximander. ii._
Anaxagoras said to a man who was grieving because he was dying in
a foreign land, "The descent to Hades is the same from every
place."
_Anaxagoras. vi._
Aristophanes turns Socrates into ridicule in his comedies, as
making the worse appear the better reason.[759-2]
_Socrates. v._
Often when he was looking on at auctions he would say, "How many
things there are which I do not need!"
_Socrates. x._
Socrates said, "Those who want fewest things are nearest to the
gods."
_Socrates. xi._
He said that there was one only good, namely, knowledge; and one
only evil, namely, ignorance.
_Socrates. xiv._
He declared that he knew nothing, except the fact of his
ignorance.
_Socrates. xvi._
Being asked whether it was better to marry or not, he replied,
"Whichever you do, you will repent it."
_Socrates. xvi._
He used to say that other men lived to eat, but that he ate to
live.[760-1]
_Socrates. xvi._
Aristippus being asked what were the most necessary things for
well-born boys to learn, said, "Those things which they will put
in practice when they become men."
_Aristippus. iv._
Aristippus said that a wise man's country was the world.[760-2]
_Aristippus. xiii._
Like sending owls to Athens, as the proverb goes.
_Plato. xxxii._
Plato affirmed that the soul was immortal and clothed in many
bodies successively.
_Plato. xl._
Time is the image of eternity.
_Plato. xli._
That virtue was sufficient of herself for happiness.[760-3]
_Plato. xlii._
That the gods superintend all the affairs of men, and that there
are such beings as dæmons.
_Plato. xlii._
There is a written and an unwritten law. The one by which we
regulate our constitutions in our cities is the written law; that
which arises from custom is the unwritten law.
_Plato. li._
Plato was continually saying to Xenocrates, "Sacrifice to the
Graces."[760-4]
_Xenocrates. iii._
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."
_Bion. iii._
Of a rich man who was niggardly he said, "That man does not own
his estate, but his estate owns him."
_Bion. iii._
Bion insisted on the principle that "The property of friends is
common."[761-1]
_Bion. 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."[761-2]
_Aristotle. xi._
He used to say that personal beauty was a better introduction
than any letter;[761-3] 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."
_Aristotle. xi._
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."[762-1]
_Aristotle. xi._
It was a saying of his that education was an ornament in
prosperity and a refuge in adversity.
_Aristotle. xi._
He was once asked what a friend is, and his answer was, "One soul
abiding in two bodies."[762-2]
_Aristotle. xi._
Asked what he gained from philosophy, he answered, "To do without
being commanded what others do from fear of the laws."
_Aristotle. xi._
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."
_Aristotle. xi._
He used to define justice as "a virtue of the soul distributing
that which each person deserved."
_Aristotle. xi._
Another of his sayings was, that education was the best viaticum
of old age.
_Aristotle. xi._
The chief good he has defined to be the exercise of virtue in a
perfect life.
_Aristotle. xiii._
He used to teach that God is incorporeal, as Plato also asserted,
and that his providence extends over all the heavenly bodies.
_Aristotle. xiii._
It was a favourite expression of Theophrastus that time was the
most valuable thing that a man could spend.[762-3]
_Theophrastus. x._
Antisthenes used to say that envious people were devoured by
their own disposition, just as iron is by rust.
_Antisthenes. iv._
When he was praised by some wicked men, he said, "I am sadly
afraid that I must have done some wicked thing."[763-1]
_Antisthenes. iv._
When asked what learning was the most necessary, he said, "Not to
unlearn what you have learned."
_Antisthenes. iv._
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."
_Diogenes. 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.
_Diogenes. vi._
All things are in common among friends.[763-2]
_Diogenes. vi._
"Be of good cheer," said Diogenes; "I see land."
_Diogenes. vi._
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."
_Diogenes. vi._
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."[763-3]
_Diogenes. vi._
Diogenes lighted a candle in the daytime, and went round saying,
"I am looking for a man."[763-4]
_Diogenes. vi._
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."[764-1]
_Diogenes. vi._
When asked what wine he liked to drink, he replied, "That which
belongs to another."
_Diogenes. vi._
Asked from what country he came, he replied, "I am a citizen of
the world."[764-2]
_Diogenes. 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."[764-3]
_Diogenes. vi._
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."[764-4]
_Zeno. xix._
They say that the first inclination which an animal has is to
protect itself.
_Zeno. 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.[764-5]
_Zeno. 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.
_Zeno. 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 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.
_Zeno. 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."
_Chrysippus. 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.[765-1]
_Pythagoras. 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.[765-2]
_Pythagoras. xvii._
In the time of Pythagoras that proverbial phrase "Ipse
dixit"[765-3] was introduced into ordinary life.
_Pythagoras. 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.
_Xenophanes. iii._
Protagoras asserted that there were two sides to every question,
exactly opposite to each other.
_Protagoras. iii._
Nothing can be produced out of nothing.[766-1]
_Diogenes of Apollonia. ii._
Xenophanes speaks thus:--
And no man knows distinctly anything,
And no man ever will.
_Pyrrho. viii._
Democritus says, "But we know nothing really; for truth lies deep
down."
_Pyrrho. viii._
Euripides says,--
Who knows but that this life is really death,
And whether death is not what men call life?
_Pyrrho. viii._
The mountains, too, at a distance appear airy masses and smooth,
but seen near at hand, they are rough.[766-2]
_Pyrrho. ix._
If appearances are deceitful, then they do not deserve any
confidence when they assert what appears to them to be true.
_Pyrrho. xi._
The chief good is the suspension of the judgment, which
tranquillity of mind follows like its shadow.
_Pyrrho. xi._
Epicurus laid down the doctrine that pleasure was the chief good.
_Epicurus. vi._
He alludes to the appearance of a face in the orb of the moon.
_Epicurus. xxv._
Fortune is unstable, while our will is free.
_Epicurus. xxvii._
FOOTNOTES:
[757-1] See Pope, page 317. Also Plutarch, page 736.
[757-2] Mêden agan, _nequid nimis_.
[758-1] De mortuis nil nisi bonum (Of the dead be nothing said but
what is good.)--_Of unknown authorship._
[758-2] See Hesiod, page 693.
[758-3] Quoted by Epictetus (Fragment lxii.), "Forgiveness is
better than punishment; for the one is the proof of a gentle, the
other of a savage nature."
[758-4] See Shakespeare, page 115.
[758-5] In the multitude of words there wanteth not
sin.--_Proverbs x. 19._
[758-6] See Publius Syrus, page 710.
[758-7] "How thick do you judge the planks of our ship to be?"
"Some two good inches and upward," returned the pilot. "It seems,
then, we are within two fingers' breadth of damnation."--RABELAIS:
_book iv. chap. xxiii._
[759-1] The story of Rip Van Winkle.
[759-2] See Milton, page 226.
[760-1] See Plutarch, page 738.
[760-2] See Garrison, page 605.
[760-3] See Walton, page 207.
In that [virtue] does happiness consist.--ZENO (page 764).
[760-4] See Chesterfield, page 353.
[761-1] All things are in common among friends.--DIOGENES (page
763).
[761-2] See Prior, page 288.
[761-3] See Publius Syrus, page 709.
[762-1] Quoted with great warmth by Dr. Johnson
(Boswell).--LANGTON: _Collectanea._
[762-2] See Pope, page 340.
[762-3] See Franklin, page 361.
[763-1] See Plutarch, page 733.
[763-2] See Terence, page 705. Also, page 761.
[763-3] The rich when he is hungry, the poor when he has anything
to eat.--RABELAIS: _book iv. chap. lxiv._
[763-4] The same is told of Æsop.
[764-1] See Mathew Henry, page 283.
[764-2] See Garrison, page 605.
[764-3] See Bacon, page 169.
[764-4] See page 762.
[764-5] See page 760.
[765-1] See Hall, page 457.
[765-2] See Spenser, page 30.
[765-3] Autos epha (The master said so).
[766-1] See Shakespeare, page 146.
[766-2] See Campbell, page 512.
ATHENÆUS. _Circa_ 200 A. D.
(_Translation by C. D. Yonge, B. A._)
It was a saying of Demetrius Phalereus, that "Men having often
abandoned what was visible for the sake of what was uncertain,
have not got what they expected, and have lost what they
had,--being unfortunate by an enigmatical sort of
calamity."[766-3]
_The Deipnosophists. vi. 23._
Every investigation which is guided by principles of Nature fixes
its ultimate aim entirely on gratifying the stomach.[767-1]
_The Deipnosophists. vii. 11._
Dorion, ridiculing the description of a tempest in the "Nautilus"
of Timotheus, said that he had seen a more formidable storm in a
boiling saucepan.[767-2]
_The Deipnosophists. viii. 19._
On one occasion some one put a very little wine into a
wine-cooler, and said that it was sixteen years old. "It is very
small for its age," said Gnathæna.
_The Deipnosophists. xiii. 47._
Goodness does not consist in greatness, but greatness in
goodness.[767-3]
_The Deipnosophists. xiv. 46._
FOOTNOTES:
[766-3] Said with reference to mining operations.
[767-1] See Johnson, page 371.
[767-2] Tempest in a teapot.--_Proverb._
[767-3] See Chapman, page 37.
SAINT AUGUSTINE. 354-430.
When I am here, I do not fast on Saturday; when at Rome, I do
fast on Saturday.[767-4]
_Epistle 36. To Casulanus._
The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light,--although it
passes among the impure, it is not polluted.[767-5]
_Works. Vol. iii. In Johannis Evangelum, c. tr. 5, Sect. 15._
FOOTNOTES:
[767-4] See Burton, page 193.
[767-5] See Bacon, page 169.
ALI BEN ABI TALEB.[767-6] ---- -660.
Believe me, a thousand friends suffice thee not;
In a single enemy thou hast more than enough.[767-7]
FOOTNOTES:
[767-6] Ali Ben Abi Taleb, son-in-law of Mahomet, and fourth
caliph, who was for his courage called "The Lion of God," was
murdered A. D. 660. He was the author of a "Hundred Sayings."
[767-7] Translated by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and wrongly called by
him a translation from Omar Khayyám.
Found in Dr. Hermann Tolowiez's "Polyglotte der Orientalischen
Poesie."
Translated by James Russell Lowell thus:--
He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare,
And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere.
OMAR KHAYYÁM. ---- -1123.
(_Translated by Edward Fitzgerald._)
I sometimes think that never blows so red
The Rose as where some buried Cæsar bled;
That every Hyacinth the Garden wears
Dropt in her Lap from some once lovely Head.
_Rubáiyát. Stanza xix._
A Moment's Halt--a momentary taste
Of BEING from the Well amid the Waste--
And, Lo! the phantom Caravan has reach'd
The NOTHING it set out from. Oh, make haste!
_Rubáiyát. Stanza xlviii._
Heav'n but the Vision of fulfill'd Desire,
And Hell the Shadow of a Soul on fire.
_Rubáiyát. Stanza lxvii._
The Moving Finger writes; and having writ,
Moves on; nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.
_Rubáiyát. Stanza lxxi._
And this I know: whether the one True Light
Kindle to Love, or Wrath-consume me quite,
One Flash of It within the Tavern caught
Better than in the Temple lost outright.
_Rubáiyát. Stanza lxxvii._