"These things were better left to lie untouched,"
he rose up and left the theatre, saying it was absurd to think it
proper to seek for a slave if he was not to be found, but to let
virtue perish unregarded. When his advice was asked whether to marry
or not, he said, "Whichever you do, you will regret it!" He used to
say that he marveled that those who made stone statues took pains to
make the stone as like the man as possible, but took none with
themselves, that they might not be like the stone. He thought it
proper for the young to look constantly in the mirror, so that if they
had beauty they might prove themselves worthy of it, and if they were
ugly, that they might conceal their ugliness by their accomplishments.
When he had invited rich friends to dinner, and Xanthippe was ashamed,
he said, "Do not be troubled. If they are sensible, they will bear
with us. If not, we shall care nothing for them." Most men, he said,
lived to eat; but he ate to live. As to those who showed regard for
the opinions of the ignoble multitude, he said it was as if a man
should reject one tetradrachm [coin] as worthless, but accept a heap
of such coins as good. When AEschines said, "I am poor and have nothing
else, but I give you myself," he said, "Do you then not realize you
are offering me the greatest of gifts?" To him who said, "The
Athenians have condemned you to death," he responded, "And nature has
condemned them also thereto:" though some ascribe this to Anaxagoras.
When his wife exclaimed, "You die innocent!" he answered, "Do you wish
I were guilty?"