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Book II Chapter 31

Metrodorus

A young man who lives amid lavish food and drink, and sexual pleasures besides, does not realize that he is wearing out his cloak in summer.¹¹⁸⁶

Antisthenes

Those who are to become good men must train their bodies through exercise and their souls through education.¹¹⁸⁷

Demosthenes, from the Philippics

Yet I think it is never possible to acquire a great and vigorous spirit while doing petty and base things, just as one cannot think in a petty and servile way while doing splendid and noble things.¹¹⁸⁸ For whatever people’s pursuits may be, their spirit must correspond.¹¹⁸⁹

Xenophon

It is best to learn what is good from one’s own nature, and second best from those who are truly good.¹¹⁹⁰

Democritus

Neither skill nor wisdom is attainable unless one learns.¹¹⁹¹

Democritus: From the same author

Understanding is, I suppose, found among the young, and lack of it among the old. For time does not teach sound judgment, but upbringing at the proper time and nature do.¹¹⁹²

Democritus: From the same author

Someone who contradicts and indulges in much idle talk is naturally ill suited to learning.¹¹⁹³

Diogenes

Diogenes said it was absurd to pour oil into a lamp so that we can see at the table,¹¹⁹⁴ yet be unwilling to spend anything so that, becoming wiser in mind, we can discern what is best for life.¹¹⁹⁵

Diogenes: The same man

When the same man was asked what was the heaviest thing borne by the earth, he said, “An uneducated person.”¹¹⁹⁶

Antisthenes

When Antisthenes was asked by someone what he would teach his son, he said, “If he intends to live with gods, a philosopher; but if with human beings, an orator.”¹¹⁹⁷

Solon

Solon was rebuking someone who was playing dice. When the man said he was playing for small stakes, Solon replied, “But the habit is no small thing.”¹¹⁹⁸

Hyperides

Hyperides the orator used to say that one cannot live well without having learned ⟨the⟩ noble things in life.¹¹⁹⁹

Socrates

When asked what knowledge is, Socrates replied, “Care of the soul.” Asked further what chiefly makes people bad, he said, “Bad upbringing and wicked company.”¹²⁰⁰

Plato

Plato said that education is a second sun for human beings.¹²⁰¹

Zeno

Zeno was asked how a young person might go wrong as little as possible. “If he keeps before his eyes,” he said, “those whom he most honors and before whom he feels shame.”¹²⁰²

From the letter On Friendship

Education, even if it has no other good quality, at least by keeping one company night and day preserves from vice those who have some sense of shame.¹²⁰³ And many, themselves and others… [text missing]¹²⁰⁴

From Ariston’s Comparisons

They say one should sow cumin while uttering curses, for in that way it grows well;¹²⁰⁵ young people too should be educated with mockery, for in that way they will be useful.¹²⁰⁶

Plato

Every soul that lives amid terrors from youth would become more accustomed to living in fear. Everyone would presumably call this training in cowardice, rather than courage.¹²⁰⁷ But the opposite, we would say, is a practice of courage right from youth: overcoming the terrors and fears that confront us.¹²⁰⁸

From the booklets of Aristonymus and Socrates

Walls provide cities with order and security; for souls, understanding gained through education does the same.¹²⁰⁹

Philoxenus the musician

Philoxenus the musician was asked what contributes most to education. He replied, “Time.”¹²¹⁰

Diogenes

Diogenes used to say that bringing up children resembles the shaping done by potters. Just as potters give clay whatever shape and form they wish while it is soft, but can no longer mold it once it has been fired, so too those who have not been trained through toil in their youth become impossible to reshape once they are grown.¹²¹¹

1186.Χλαῖνα is a substantial cloak. Wearing it out in summer suggests using up a resource before the season when it will be needed. Applied to the young man’s pleasures, the image may suggest squandering his strength or means; the saying does not explicitly identify what the cloak represents.

1187.The dative παιδεύσει, through education, balances γυμνασίοις, through exercise. Both body and soul fall under ἀσκεῖν, to train or cultivate. The saying gives bodily exercise and education parallel roles in preparing a person to become good.

1188.The heading places the passage under Philippics. It also survives at Demosthenes 13.25, in the speech Περὶ συντάξεως, On Organization, where the speaker contrasts the Athenians’ present conduct with that of their ancestors. The local anthology wording governs the translation.

1189.Φρόνημα is one’s spirit, outlook or cast of mind; νεανικόν adds youthful vigor or boldness. The conclusion links this outlook to ἐπιτηδεύματα, pursuits or habitual practices. The English retains both the speaker’s I think and the necessary correspondence expressed by ἀνάγκη.

1190.On Hunting 13.4. The local wording is retained: the second source of learning is the truly good. The separate Xenophon text refers instead to those who truly know something good; its longer expression is not inserted here.

1191.Τέχνη is art, craft, or skilled practice; σοφίη is the Ionic form of wisdom. The English follows the printed Democritus heading. Wachsmuth’s apparatus records the alternative name Democrates; it is not substituted for the local attribution.

1192.I suppose renders Ionic κου. The closing ὡραίῃ τροφῇ, upbringing at the proper time, is dative, whereas φύσις, nature, is nominative. The English gives the apparent contrast, treating them as coordinated sources of judgment, while the local grammar is imperfect. Neither its order nor its wording is replaced by the parallel’s nature and right way of life.

1193.Λεσχηνευόμενος denotes talk or chatter, here paired with contradicting. Ἀφυής concerns a lack of natural aptitude; the saying does not express an absolute impossibility of learning. No particular teacher, opponent, or occasion is identified.

1194.Diogenes is named in the opening narrative, without a separate author heading in the source. His name is repeated above for orientation. The lamp is fed with oil to provide light at the table.

1195.The sentence contrasts spending resources to see at a meal with unwillingness to spend on wiser judgment. Κατανοεῖν is to perceive or understand; the two forms of seeing connect physical light with understanding what benefits life.

1196.The same man continues Diogenes from excerpt 74; the source gives no separate heading here. The answer turns a question about physical weight into a judgment about lack of education or cultivation. Wachsmuth records a parallel attribution to Demonax; it does not replace the local attribution to Diogenes.

1197.In these four anecdotes, the names belong to the narrative; their repeated display labels are editorial. The future διδάξει is retained as would teach. The answer leaves its verb implicit: philosopher and orator indicate the intended outcome of the son’s education, rather than a stated curriculum.

1198.Ἔθος is habit or customary practice. The reply shifts the measure from the size of the stake to the habit of playing.

1199.The repetition of καλῶς, well, and καλά, noble or fine things, links the quality of life with what one learns. The supplied article τὰ, the, is retained; it makes explicit the substantive expression the noble things.

1200.The first answer joins ἐπιστήμη, knowledge, with ἐπιμέλεια ψυχῆς, care of the soul. The second question asks πόθεν, from what source, people become bad. Ἀγωγή is upbringing or training, and ὁμιλία association or company. The unnamed questioner and the occasion remain unspecified.

1201.Education is likened to a source of light. No work title is given, so this brief saying does not identify a particular Platonic dialogue. Plato and Zeno are named in the opening narratives of excerpts 80 and 81; their separate labels above are editorial.

1202.Αἰσχύνεται with a person as object concerns the shame or restraint one feels before that person. The image is of keeping respected people in view; no particular mentor is named. The Greek retains the printed present ἔχει, keeps, rather than the alternative optative ἔχοι recorded in the apparatus.

1203.The heading names a letter On Friendship; Wachsmuth identifies Plutarch in his parenthetical fragment reference, Plut. fr. 18,15. Συμφοιτᾶν is to accompany or keep company, with αὐτήν read as education, the subject of the infinitive. The English construes the compressed opening accordingly. The printed ἐκσῴζει, preserves from, is an adopted correction; the apparatus records transmitted ἔξω, outside.

1204.The final clause is unfinished. Πολλοί is nominative, many; σφᾶς αὐτούς and ἄλλους are accusative, themselves and others. The surviving words do not supply a predicate that securely connects them. The two printed asterisks mark the gap after others; no missing verb or conclusion is supplied.

1205.The heading names Ariston’s Comparisons without identifying which Ariston. Φασί, they say, presents the claim about sowing cumin as something reported within the analogy. Βλασφημεῖν here is to utter abusive or ill-omened words.

1206.Ἐπισκώπτειν is to mock, tease or make jokes at someone’s expense. The passage applies its account of cultivating cumin to the training of young people. The excerpt gives no wider context to establish how seriously the analogy is intended.

1207.Laws VII, 791B–C. Ἄσκησις, training, and ἐπιτήδευμα, practice or pursuit, connect repeated experience with the formation of character. The English retains the potential would and the qualifying που, rendered presumably.

1208.Wachsmuth’s apparatus reports Plato’s ἅπασα for the local πᾶσα, and γίγνεσθαι, to become, for εἶναι, to be, in the preceding sentence. It also notes Clinias’s brief question before the final sentence, absent here. The Greek and English follow the anthology’s continuous passage.

1209.The compound heading is retained as printed. Τομάρια means small rolls or books; the heading joins the names Aristonymus and Socrates without explaining their relation. Κόσμος can mean order or adornment; the comparison joins it with ἀσφάλεια, security, and makes educated understanding the soul’s counterpart to a city’s walls.

1210.Συνεργεῖ means helps or contributes to. The answer names the time education requires, without specifying a particular course of study. Philoxenus, Diogenes and Monimus are named within the narratives of excerpts 86–88; their separate display labels are editorial.

1211.Ἀγωγή is upbringing or training; διὰ πόνων specifies training through toil or exertion. The contrast is between soft and fired clay. Ἀμεταπλάστους, impossible to reshape, carries that image into the claim about adults; the English preserves the comparison’s categorical wording.