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← ExitStobaeus, Volume II

Reading language

Book II Chapter 15

Menander

⟨Your⟩ speech is full of great understanding; but your deeds appear to lack understanding.¹⁰⁰¹

Poseidippus

Speaking well is no achievement; thinking well is; for many who speak well have no sense.¹⁰⁰²

Euripides, from Phoenix

Before now I have been chosen to judge many accounts,¹⁰⁰³ and when many claims were contested by witnesses, I learned contradictory things about a single event. This is how I, and any man who is wise, reckon the truth: by looking at a man’s character and the manner of life in which he spends his days.¹⁰⁰⁴

⟨Unknown tragedian⟩

And by this I could show you, if you wished, the truth: that I too resent anyone who knows how to speak with elegance, but has produced deeds worse than his words.¹⁰⁰⁵

Menander

Your speech, boy, runs a straight course; but your conduct goes along another path.¹⁰⁰⁶

Sophocles, from Eriphyle

Among empty men the tongue is held in honor, where words have greater force than deeds.¹⁰⁰⁷

Menander

⟨He⟩ who has no sense, yet talks at length on each matter, shows his character in the very words he uses.¹⁰⁰⁸

Themistius, from On Moderation of Emotion, or On Love of One’s Children

That if speech is not in accord with character, it becomes alien and does not belong to its speaker, like the words Thersites addressed to the Achaeans:

whom I might bring in bonds.¹⁰⁰⁹

For this belonged to Achilles and Ajax; the hunchback appropriated it, though it did not belong to him at all.¹⁰¹⁰

Myson

Myson of Chen said that one should judge ⟨deeds⟩ not by words, but words by deeds.¹⁰¹¹

Theophrastus

We establish the credibility of a life ⟨not⟩ from skill in speech, but that of speech from good order in life.¹⁰¹²

Demosthenes

For all speech, if action is absent, seems a futile and empty thing.¹⁰¹³

Democritus

Many people who do the most shameful things cultivate the finest words.¹⁰¹⁴

⟨A⟩pollonius to Glauc⟨us⟩

Barley-cake and a threadbare cloak are ⟨f⟩ine things,¹⁰¹⁵ when not called for as a practice to win reputation, but borne with dignity when circumstances lead one to them.¹⁰¹⁶

Pythagoras

Do not display in words what you think, but in deeds what you do.¹⁰¹⁷

Democritus

It is virtue’s deeds and actions that one should emulate, not words.¹⁰¹⁸

Socrates

When Socrates was asked whose speech has the greatest force, he said, “That of those whose action accompanies their speech.”¹⁰¹⁹

⟨Eu⟩xitheus

⟨Eu⟩xitheus of Athens said that those who are good in ⟨words⟩¹⁰²⁰ but worthless in their lives are like pleasant dreams.¹⁰²¹

From Epictetus’s Handbook

Sheep do not show their shepherds how much they have eaten by bringing them grass. Instead, after digesting their forage ⟨within⟩, they bring forth wool and cheese outside.¹⁰²² You too should not display your principles to laypeople, but the deeds accomplished from them.¹⁰²³

Democritus

Fine speech does not conceal a base deed, nor is a good deed spoiled by slanderous speech.¹⁰²⁴

Demosthenes, from the Olynthiacs

For action, though it comes after speaking and voting in sequence, comes first in effectiveness and is superior.¹⁰²⁵

Phalaris

Without even understanding this: that among the wise speech is held to be the shadow of action.¹⁰²⁶

Diogenes

Diogenes was delivering a discourse on temperance and self-control. When the Athenians praised him, he said, “May you perish miserably—you contradict me by your deeds.”¹⁰²⁷

Polyaenus

For when the test of deeds also keeps pace with the dignity of the words, this indeed should be called a philosopher’s teaching. But when speech promises great things and life accomplishes not even the least, is this not the boasting and bombast of a sophist intent on astonishing young men’s ears?¹⁰²⁸

1001.The supplied ⟨σου⟩ means your. The same noun, σύνεσις, understanding, is first credited to the speech and then found absent from the deeds. The heading names Menander without identifying a play or speaker.

1002.Ἔργον here presents the worthwhile or demanding task: sound thought rather than fluent speech. Φρονεῖν, think or exercise judgment, is Wachsmuth’s printed reading; his apparatus records a correction from ποιεῖν, do. The translation follows the printed distinction between speaking and thinking.

1003.Aeschines, Against Timarchus 152, quotes these verses as Euripides’s Phoenix and uses them to urge judgment from a person’s life rather than suspicion or accusation. The local heading names Euripides only. Aeschines’s parallel has different word order in the first line and σκοπῶν, looking at, where the anthology prints βλέπων; the local text is retained.

1004.Contradictory accounts concern one and the same event, συμφορᾶς μιᾶς. The speaker therefore looks to the person’s φύσις, character or nature, and δίαιτα, habitual manner of living. The final middle form ἡμερεύεται is difficult; the rendering gives its apparent reference to daily life, supported by Aeschines’s explanation in section 153. It is retained rather than silently replaced by another reading.

1005.Wachsmuth separates these four verses as excerpt 25a and supplies the attribution ⟨Unknown tragedian⟩; they are not treated as a continuation securely belonging to Euripides. The opening by this refers to a demonstration whose wider context is absent. Εὐπρεπῶς suggests attractive or respectable presentation, tested here against conduct.

1006.The contrast extends a road image: speech runs straight, while the deed, τὸ ἔργον, takes a different path. The address παῖ means boy or child; the fragment does not identify the speaker or the person addressed.

1007.The tongue stands for verbal ability. Κενοῖσιν, empty, characterizes men lacking substance; it does not refer here to poverty. The lost Eriphyle is named, but the excerpt supplies no dramatic setting or speaker.

1008.The supplied article ⟨ὁ⟩ is represented by ⟨He⟩. Τρόπος is character or disposition: the thoughtless speaker’s own words expose it. The line thus treats speech itself as evidence of the person speaking.

1009.The verse is the opening part of Iliad II.231. Thersites is addressing Agamemnon about a Trojan captive for whom ransom might be brought. The local quotation stops before the rest of the Homeric line, which adds or another of the Achaeans.

1010.Themistius means that such a boast would fit Achilles or Ajax; he is not saying that Homer assigns this utterance to them. The hunchback refers to Thersites. Ὑπεβάλετο evokes passing something off as one’s own, reinforcing the claim that speech must fit the speaker’s character.

1011.The name is Myson, not Musonius. The completion τὰ⟨ς πράξεις⟩ supplies the noun deeds and the end of its article; English marks the supplied noun. Diogenes Laertius I.108 independently assigns Myson a related maxim about testing arguments by facts. The wording here remains Wachsmuth’s quotation, with deeds and words.

1012.Supplied ⟨οὐ⟩ is retained as ⟨not⟩. Printed πιστοῦμεν means make credible or establish credibility, rather than the transmitted πιστεύομεν, believe. Εὐταξία, good order, concerns the ordering of conduct here; the person’s way of life gives authority to the speech.

1013.Demosthenes, Second Olynthiac 12. In its original setting, Athenian envoys must be able to point to action supporting their message. The local quotation has τὸ ἔργον, singular, where the parallel text has τὰ πράγματα; that local wording is retained.

1014.The superlatives αἴσχιστα, most shameful, and ἀρίστους, best or finest, sharpen the disparity. The Ionic ἀσκέουσιν means practice or cultivate: polished speech is being distinguished from the conduct of those who practice it.

1015.The heading supplies the initial ⟨Ἀ⟩ of Apollonius and the ending of Glaucus’s name; the English marks the corresponding reconstructed portions. Only the initial ⟨Κ⟩ of καλόν, fine, is supplied in the body, reflected in ⟨f⟩ine.

1016.Barley-cake and the worn cloak represent austere living. The main text has καλούμενα, called or summoned, and φορούμενα, borne or worn; these are retained despite the awkward combination. The passage contrasts choosing austerity for reputation with bearing it with dignity when circumstances lead to it.

1017.The printed wording is difficult: ἃ φρονεῖς means what you think, and ἃ ποιεῖς what you do. The apparatus proposes replacements meaning think well and do well, and also considers exchanging the clauses. Those changes are not used here; the uneasy parallel is preserved.

1018.The unusual printed πρήξιας is retained; the apparatus flags the manuscript form with sic. It functions as actions alongside ἔργα, deeds. Ζηλοῦν urges emulation or striving after these practical expressions of virtue.

1019.Συνακολουθεῖ means follows along with or accompanies. Action supplies the force of persuasive speech by keeping pace with it. This is a reported saying assigned to Socrates; the excerpt does not name the questioner.

1020.Both the heading and the narrative name begin with supplied ⟨Εὐ⟩, rendered ⟨Eu⟩. Supplied ⟨λόγοις⟩, words, completes the contrast with the way of life described in the following clause.

1021.Ἀγαθοῖς ἐνυπνίοις means good or pleasant dreams. The comparison sets an appealing appearance against the lack of corresponding value in conduct. The verbal opposition χρηστούς and ἀχρήστους contrasts being good or useful with being worthless.

1022.Epictetus, Handbook 46.2. The supplied ⟨ἔσω⟩ means within. The anthology prints τυρόν, cheese, where the separate Handbook text has γάλα, milk. Local φέροντα means bringing; the apparatus considers a different reading involving bringing up or vomiting. The printed wording is retained.

1023.Θεωρήματα are philosophical principles or propositions, not necessarily mathematical theorems. The comparison turns inward assimilation into outward conduct. The local ending has πραχθέντα ἔργα, deeds accomplished; the separate Handbook text instead speaks of deeds coming from principles that have been digested. That wording is not imported into the anthology.

1024.Πρῆξις is the Ionic form of the word for action. The two halves deny that words can cancel the moral quality of a deed: fine speech cannot obscure a base action, and verbal slander cannot spoil a good one. Ἀμαυρίσκει literally suggests dimming or obscuring.

1025.Demosthenes, Third Olynthiac 15. Χειροτονεῖν refers to voting by a show of hands. The distinction is between sequence, τάξις, and effective power, δύναμις: speeches and votes precede implementation, but their practical force depends on action. The surrounding speech contrasts decrees with actually doing what they prescribe.

1026.The source cites Letter 35 in the correspondence transmitted under the name of Phalaris. The excerpt opens with the participle συνιείς, understanding, rather than a complete independent sentence. The shadow image makes speech dependent on the deed it represents.

1027.Σωφροσύνη, temperance, and ἐγκράτεια, self-control, concern the audience’s conduct, not its willingness to applaud a discourse. The wish κάκιστα ἀπόλοισθε is a curse, not a request that the crowd go away; the following participle explains it through their contradictory deeds.

1028.Πεῖρα τῶν ἔργων puts the dignity of the discourse to the test of actual conduct. Δόγμα is teaching or doctrine here. Κόμπος and τερατεία characterize boastful, sensational display; the final phrase points to its intended effect on young listeners. The heading supplies the name Polyaenus without further identification.