The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
of us, with all his property which I received. I also will that Ambracis
shall have her liberty, and that there shall be given to her when her
daughter is married, five hundred drachmas, and the handmaid whom she now
has. And I will that there be given to Thales, besides the handmaiden
whom she now has, who was bought for her, a thousand drachmas and another
handmaid. And to Timon, in addition to the money that has been given to
him before for another boy, an additional slave, or a sum of money which
shall be equivalent. I also will that Tychon shall have his liberty when
his daughter is married, and Philon, and Olympius, and his son. Moreover,
of those boys who wait upon me, I will that none shall be sold, but
my executors may use them, and when they are grown up then they shall
emancipate them if they deserve it. I desire too, that my executors will
take under their care the statues which it has been entrusted to Gryllion
to make, that when they are made they may be erected in their proper
places; and so too shall the statues of Nicanor, and of Proxenus, which I
was intending to give him a commission for, and also that of the mother
of Nicanor. I wish them also to erect in its proper place the statue
of Arimnestus which is already made, that it may be a memorial of her,
since she has died childless. I wish them also to dedicate a statue of my
mother to Ceres at Nemea, or wherever else they think fit. And wherever
they bury me, there I desire that they shall also place the bones of
Pythias, having taken them up from the place where they now lie, as she
herself enjoined. And I desire that Nicanor, as he has been preserved,
will perform the vow which I made on his behalf, and dedicate some
figures of animals in stone, four cubits high, to Jupiter the saviour,
and Minerva the saviour, in Stagira.”
These are the provisions of his will.
X. And it is said that a great many dishes were found in his house;
and that Lycon stated that he used to bathe in a bath of warm oil, and
afterwards to sell the oil. But some say that he used to place a leather
bag of warm oil on his stomach. And whenever he went to bed, he used to
take a brazen ball in his hand, having arranged a brazen dish below it;
so that, when the ball fell into the dish, he might be awakened by the
noise.
XI. The following admirable apophthegms are attributed to him.
He was once asked, what those who tell lies gain by it; “They gain this,”
said he, “that when they speak truth they are not believed.”
On one occasion he was blamed for giving alms to a worthless man, and he
replied, “I did not pity the man, but his condition.”
He was accustomed continually to say to his friends and pupils wherever
he happened to be, “That sight receives the light from the air which
surrounds it, and in like manner the soul receives the light from the
science.”
Very often, when he was inveighing against the Athenians, he would say
that they had invented both wheat and laws, but that they used only the
wheat and neglected the laws.
It was a saying of his that the roots of education were bitter, but the
fruit sweet.
Once he was asked what grew old most speedily, and he replied,
“Gratitude.”
On another occasion the question was put to him, what hope is? and his
answer was, “The dream of a waking man.”
Diogenes once offered him a dry fig, and as he conjectured that if he did
not take it the cynic had a witticism ready prepared, he accepted it, and
then said that Diogenes had lost his joke and his fig too; and another
time when he took one from him as he offered it, he held it up as a child
does, and said, “O great Diogenes;” and then he gave it to him back again.
He used to say that there were three things necessary to education;
natural qualifications, instruction, and practice.
Having heard that he was abused by some one, he said, “He may beat me
too, if he likes, in my absence.”
He used to say that beauty is the best of all recommendations, but others
say that it was Diogenes who gave this description of it; and that
Aristotle called beauty, “The gift of a fair appearance,” that Socrates
called it “A short-lived tyranny;” Plato, “The privilege of nature;”
Theophrastus, “A silent deceit;” Theocritus, “An ivory mischief;”
Carneades, “A sovereignty which stood in need of no guards.”
On one occasion he was asked how much educated men were superior to those
uneducated; “As much,” said he, “as the living are to the dead.”
It was a saying of his that education was an ornament in prosperity, and
a refuge in adversity. And that those parents who gave their children a
good education deserved more honour than those who merely beget them: for
that the latter only enabled their children to live, but the former gave
them the power of living well.
When a man boasted in his presence that he was a native of an illustrious
city, he said, “That is not what one ought to look at, but whether one is
worthy of a great city.”
He was once asked what a friend is; and his answer was, “One soul abiding
in two bodies.”
It was a saying of his that some men were as stingy as if they expected
to live for ever, and some as extravagant as if they expected to die
immediately.
When he was asked why people like to spend a great deal of their time
with handsome people, “That,” said he, “is a question fit for a blind man
to ask.”
The question was once put to him, what he had gained by philosophy; and
the answer he made was this, “That I do without being commanded, what
others do from fear of the laws.”
He was once asked what his disciples ought to do to get on; and he
replied, “Press on upon those who are in front of them, and not wait for
those who are behind to catch them.”
A chattering fellow, who had been abusing him, said to him, “Have not I
been jeering you properly?” “Not that I know of,” said he, “for I have
not been listening to you.”
A man on one occasion reproached him for having given a contribution to
one who was not a good man (for the story which I have mentioned before
is also quoted in this way), and his answer was, “I gave not to the man,
but to humanity.”
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.”
He used to define justice as “A virtue of the soul distributive of what
each person deserved.”
Another of his sayings was, that education was the best viaticum for old
age.
Phavorinus, in the second book of his Commentaries, says that he was
constantly repeating, “The man who has friends has no friend.” And this
sentiment is to be found also in the seventh book of the Ethics.
These apophthegms then are attributed to him.
XII. He also wrote a great number of works; and I have thought it worth
while to give a list of them, on account of the eminence of their author
in every branch of philosophy. Four books on Justice; three books on
Poets; three books on Philosophy; two books of The Statesman; one on
Rhetoric, called also the Gryllus; the Nerinthus, one; the Sophist, one;
the Menexenus, one; the Erotic, one; the Banquet, one; on Riches, one;
the Exhortation, one; on the Soul, one; on Prayer, one; on Nobility of
Birth, one; on Pleasure, one; the Alexander, or an Essay on Colonists,
one; on Sovereignty, one; on Education, one; on the Good, three; three
books on things in the Laws of Plato; two on Political Constitutions;
on Economy, one; on Friendship, one; on Suffering, or having Suffered,
one; on Sciences, one; on Discussions, two; Solutions of Disputed
Points, two; Sophistical Divisions, four; on Contraries, one; on Species
and Genera, one; on Property, one; Epicheirematic, or Argumentative
Commentaries, three; Propositions relating to Virtue, three; Objections,
one; one book on things which are spoken of in various ways, or a
Preliminary Essay; one on the Passion of Anger; five on Ethics; three
on Elements; one on Science; one on Beginning; seventeen on Divisions;
on Divisible Things, one; two books of Questions and Answers; two on
Motion; one book of Propositions; four of Contentious Propositions; one
of Syllogisms; eight of the First Analytics; two of the second greater
Analytics; one on Problems; eight on Method; one on the Better; one on
the Idea; Definitions serving as a preamble to the Topics, seven; two
books more of Syllogisms; one of Syllogisms and Definitions; one on
what is Eligible, and on what is Suitable; the Preface to the Topics,
one; Topics relating to the Definitions, two; one on the Passions; one
on Divisions; one on Mathematics; thirteen books of Definitions; two
of Epicheiremata, or Arguments; one on Pleasure; one of Propositions;
on the Voluntary, one; on the Honourable, one; of Epicheirematic or
Argumentative Propositions, twenty-five books; of Amatory Propositions,
four; of Propositions relating to Friendship, two; of Propositions
relating to the Soul, one; on Politics, two; Political Lectures, such as
that of Theophrastus, eight; on Just Actions, two; two books entitled, A
Collection of Arts; two on the Art of Rhetoric; one on Art; two on other
Art; one on Method; one, the Introduction to the Art of Theodectes; two
books, being a treatise on the Art of Poetry; one book of Rhetorical
Enthymemes on Magnitude; one of Divisions of Enthymemes; on Style,
two; on Advice, one; on Collection, two; on Nature, three; on Natural
Philosophy, one; on the Philosophy of Archytas, three; on the Philosophy
of Speusippus and Xenocrates, one; on things taken from the doctrines of
Timæus and the school of Archytas, one; on Doctrines of Melissus, one;
on Doctrines of Alcmæon, one; on the Pythagoreans, one; on the Precepts
of Gorgias, one; on the Precepts of Xenophanes, one; on the Precepts of
Zeno, one; on the Pythagoreans, one; on Animals, nine; on Anatomy, eight;
one book, a Selection of Anatomical Questions; one on Compound Animals;
one on Mythological Animals; one on Impotence; one on Plants; one on
Physiognomy; two on Medicine; one on the Unit; one on Signs of Storms;
one on Astronomy; one on Optics; one on Motion; one on Music; one on
Memory; six on Doubts connected with Homer; one on Poetry; thirty-eight
of Natural Philosophy in reference to the First Elements; two of Problems
Resolved; two of Encyclica, or General Knowledge; one on Mechanics; two
consisting of Problems derived from the writings of Democritus; one on
Stone; one book of Comparisons; twelve books of Miscellanies; fourteen
books of things explained according to their Genus; one on Rights; one
book, the Conquerors at the Olympic Games; one, the Conquerors at the
Pythian Games in the Art of Music; one, the Pythian; one, a List of the
Victors in the Pythian Games; one, the Victories gained at the Olympic
Games; one on Tragedies; one, a List of Plays; one book of Proverbs; one
on the Laws of Recommendations; four books of Laws; one of Categories;
one on Interpretation; a book containing an account of the Constitutions
of a hundred and fifty-eight cities, and also some individual democratic,
oligarchic, aristocratic, and tyrannical Constitutions; Letters to
Philip; Letters of the Selymbrians; four Letters to Alexander; nine
to Antipater; one to Mentor; one to Ariston; one to Olympias; one to
Hephæstion; one to Themistagoras; one to Philoxenus; one to Democritus;
one book of Poems beginning:—
Hail! holy, sacred, distant-shooting God.
A book of Elegies which begins:—
Daughter of all-accomplish’d mother.
The whole consisting of four hundred and forty-five thousand two hundred
and seventy lines.
XIII. These then are the books which were written by him. And in them
he expresses the following opinions:—that there is in philosophy a
two-fold division; one practical, and the other theoretical. Again, the