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Book II Chapter 31

Monimus the Cynic philosopher

Monimus the Cynic philosopher said that it is better to ⟨be⟩ blind than uneducated: the former falls into a pit, the latter into an abyss.¹²¹²

From Dio’s Anecdotes

When the Athenians asked how things ⟨might⟩ go better for them, the Pythia replied that they would if the Athenians were willing to put the finest thing into their children’s right ear.¹²¹³ They pierced the ear and put in gold, not realizing that she meant philosophical discourse.¹²¹⁴

Democritus

Continual association with bad people will increase a disposition toward vice.¹²¹⁵

Plato, Laws I

Or, when asked this question in this way, we ⟨would⟩ reply that one person would bring little benefit to the city.¹²¹⁶ But if you are asking generally about the education of those educated—what great benefit it brings the city—it is not hard to say that those educated well would become good men. Once they were such, they would act well in other matters and would even defeat their enemies in battle. Education, then, brings victory too; victory, however, sometimes brings lack of education.¹²¹⁷ For many, made more insolent by victories in war, were filled with countless other evils through their insolence. Education has never been Cadmeian, but many human victories have indeed been so, and will be.¹²¹⁸

Diogenes

Education is like a golden crown, for it carries both honor and great expense.¹²¹⁹

Isocrates, To Demonicus

Take care of everything that concerns your life, but above all exercise your own judgment; for a good mind in a human body is the greatest thing within the smallest compass.¹²²⁰

⟨From the same author⟩

Regard many things learned as better than much money:¹²²¹ money soon runs out, but learning remains for all time; for wisdom alone among possessions is immortal.¹²²²

⟨From the same author⟩

Just as we see the bee settling on every plant but taking what is useful from each, so those who desire education must likewise be acquainted with everything and gather what is useful from every source.¹²²³

⟨From the same author⟩

Guard words held in trust more carefully than money held in trust.¹²²⁴

Democritus

The hopes of the educated are better than the wealth of the unlearned.¹²²⁵

From Ariston’s Comparisons

A helmsman will be seasick neither on a large ship nor on a small one, but the inexperienced will be seasick on either. In the same way, an educated person remains untroubled in both wealth and poverty, while an uneducated person is troubled in both.¹²²⁶

Pythagoras

Lack of education is the mother of all passions. Being educated is seen not in amassing learned discourses, but in release from natural passions.¹²²⁷

Bion

Bion used to say, following Hesiod, that there are three kinds of learners: gold, silver, and bronze.¹²²⁸ The gold class consists of those who give and learn; the silver, of those who give and do ⟨not⟩ learn; the bronze, of those who learn but do not give.¹²²⁹

Socrates

Socrates used to advise young people to look at themselves often in a mirror: the handsome were to make ⟨their⟩ character, too, match their appearance, and the ugly to cover their ugliness with goodness of character.¹²³⁰

Socrates

Asked what is most pleasant in life, the same man replied, “Education, virtue, and inquiry into things unknown.”¹²³¹

Pittacus

Pittacus advised storing up education as provision for old age: it is the best nurse in old age and makes its difficulties easy to bear.¹²³²

Socrates

Socrates saw that Xenophon ⟨was⟩ young and naturally gifted, and asked whether he knew where the fish were in the marketplace.¹²³³ When Xenophon said yes, he next asked, “What about the vegetables?” After Xenophon had answered this and the other questions, Socrates finally asked whether he knew where honorable and good men spent their time. Xenophon fell silent; Socrates rebuked him and left him. Disconcerted, Xenophon began to pursue philosophy from that point.¹²³⁴

Socrates

Socrates put a question to someone who claimed to know everything and professed wide learning. He happened to be going down to the Academy with him, and stopped beside a planted plot.¹²³⁵

“Does the farmer not seem to you to have been negligent, not planting the whole ground, but leaving gaps between the trees?”

The man replied, “Yet if he had not done this, none of these would have lived any longer; they would have destroyed one another.”¹²³⁶

“Then,” he said, “do you expect to reap any fruit from those studies, when you have not left even a little space in your own soul, but heap one study upon another?”¹²³⁷

1212.The supplied εἶναι, be, is marked in both languages. The first εἶναι in Greek belongs to the indirect statement that it is better; the supplied second infinitive belongs to being blind. Βόθρος, pit, and βάραθρον, abyss or chasm, are deliberately different words, making the second fall the more severe image.

1213.Χρεῖαι are brief instructive anecdotes or sayings. The heading names Dio without further identification. The supplied ἂν marks the potential question and is represented by the marked might. The English makes explicit the reply’s implied reference to things going better, while retaining its condition, if they were willing.

1214.The anecdote turns on taking the finest thing as a material object rather than something heard and learned. Λόγος here is discourse or speech, qualified as philosophical. The text names the Pythia but gives no further setting for the oracle.

1215.The Ionic forms ὁμιλίη and κακίης, and the printed ξυνεχὴς and συναέξει, are retained. Ἕξις is a disposition or settled habit; the future συναέξει describes its increase through continued association.

1216.Laws I, 641B–C. The supplied ἄν is shown in ⟨would⟩. The opening contrasts one person’s benefit with that of education generally. The repeated potential forms are retained rather than made into unqualified predictions.

1217.Ἀπαιδευσία is deficient education or cultivation, the opposite of παιδεία. The passage concerns character as well as effectiveness in battle: victory can encourage ὕβρις, insolent excess.

1218.A Cadmeian victory is proverbially a success ruinous to its victor. Here the expression is transferred to education: education has never produced that kind of outcome, whereas many victories have. Compare Herodotus, Histories 1.166.

1219.Τιμή can mean honor or value, while πολυτέλεια is great expense or costliness. The comparison sets education’s distinction beside its cost; the saying does not describe the crown’s material value alone.

1220.To Demonicus 40, as identified by the printed reference. Φρόνησις is practical understanding or judgment, and ἄσκει calls for its exercise or training. The final image sets the greatness of a good mind within the small compass of the human body.

1221.Ἀκούσματα are things heard, including lessons or instruction. The Greek contrasts money that gives out with learning that remains. Its final feminine μόνη and ἀθάνατος agree with σοφία, wisdom; the English follows this local construction rather than changing it to the neuter forms recorded for Isocrates in the apparatus.

1222.To Demonicus 19. The supplied heading continues the Isocrates attribution of 93a; it is preserved in angle brackets in both languages. The same applies to the supplied heading of 93c.

1223.To Demonicus 52. The bee’s broad visiting is joined to selective gathering: the repeated χρήσιμα means what is useful. The phrase μηδενὸς ἀπείρως ἔχειν calls for being unacquainted with nothing, expressed positively in the English. The comparison does not say to accept everything encountered.

1224.To Demonicus 22. The editorially supplied heading continues the Isocrates attribution of 93a–c and is marked in both languages. Παρακαταθήκη is something deposited in another’s keeping; the saying applies the same image of a trust to words and to money.

1225.Ἐλπίδες means hopes or expectations: the comparison sets the educated person’s prospects above the unlearned person’s possessions. The printed Ionic forms κρέσσονες and ἀμαθέων are retained.

1226.The heading names Ariston’s Comparisons without identifying which Ariston. The helmsman represents practiced skill, while the inexperienced at sea supply the comparison for the uneducated. The first clause uses the future ναυτιάσει, will be seasick; the application uses the present ταράττεται, is troubled or disturbed.

1227.Πολυμαθεία is wide learning. The compressed τῶν φύσει παθῶν, with φύσει meaning by nature, is rendered natural passions. Wachsmuth compares Porphyry, To Marcella 9, whose wording has ψυχικῶν, of the soul. The local wording, present θεωρεῖται and Pythagoras heading are retained.

1228.Bion’s and Socrates’s names are narrative attributions, repeated as display labels for orientation. Give probably refers to payments or contributions for instruction, but the Greek leaves its object unstated.

1229.In the gold class, [μὴ] retains a negative rejected by the editor; it is omitted from the English, so these learners both give and learn. In the silver class, the supplied ⟨μὴ⟩ gives the opposite result. Bronze retains the printed negative οὐ.

1230.Εἶδος here is visible appearance; τρόπος is character or manner. The supplied τὸν is represented by ⟨their⟩. Περιστέλλειν suggests wrapping or cloaking, with good character as the covering.

1231.The inline same man refers back to Socrates in 98; the repeated Socrates display label is editorial. Ἱστορία here is inquiry or investigation, with τῶν ἀγνοουμένων specifying things not known, rather than a narrative of past events.

1232.Ἐφόδιον is provision for a journey, here applied to preparing for old age. Γηροκομικωτάτη is a superlative describing care for the old. Pittacus and the Socrates of 101 are named within their narratives; their separate display labels are editorial.

1233.The supplied ὄντα, being, is represented by the marked was. Εὐφυής describes natural ability or aptitude. The English follows the local sequence of questions and replies.

1234.Καλοὶ κἀγαθοί is the expression noble or honorable and good. Διατραπείς conveys being disconcerted or abashed; from that point renders ἀπ’ ἐκείνου. The excerpt ends with Xenophon beginning philosophy after the rebuke; no invitation or additional dialogue is supplied.

1235.Socrates is named within the narrative, without a separate source heading; his name is repeated above for orientation. Wachsmuth questions πρὸς and tentatively suggests πυνθανόμενος, asking. The English connects the opening with the subsequent question while retaining the local Greek.

1236.The printed οὐ δοκεῖ gives a negative leading question. In the counterfactual reply, ἔτι ἐβίω is rendered would have lived any longer.

1237.The final question carries the field’s spacing into the soul. Μαθήματα are subjects or studies; their accumulation is compared with planting trees without space between them.