Stobaeus, Volume II

Name: Stobaeus, Volume II
Author: John Stobaeus

Greek and English with an introduction and explanatory footnotes.

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Stobaeus, Volume IIBook II Chapter 7 · II.7.11k.4–II.7.11k.5

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Facing Pages · Branch 172 of 516

Book II Chapter 7 · II.7.11k.4–II.7.11k.5

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Ancient Greek

p. 340

Φιλοσοφία ἐν τοῖς ἔργοις

II.7.11k.4

Οὐ γὰρ τὸν προθύμως ἀκούοντα καὶ ὑπομνηματιζόμενον τὰ λεγόμενα ὑπὸ τῶν φιλοσόφων ἕτοιμον εἶναι πρὸς τὸ φιλοσοφεῖν, ἀλλὰ τὸν ἑτοίμως ἔχοντα πρὸς τὸ τὰ διὰ τῆς φιλοσοφίας παραγγελλόμενα μεταφέρειν ἐπὶ τὰ ἔργα καὶ κατ’ αὐτὰ βιοῦν. Οὐδένα δὲ τῶν φαύλων τοιοῦτον εἶναι, προκατειλημμένον τοῖς τῆς κακίας δόγμασιν. Εἰ γὰρ προετέτραπτό τις τῶν φαύλων καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς κακίας ἂν ἐτέτραπτο. Οὐδεὶς δ’ ἔχων τὴν κακίαν πρὸς ἀρετὴν τέτραπται, ὡς οὐδὲ νοσῶν πρὸς ὑγίειαν. Μόνον δὲ προτετράφθαι τὸν σοφὸν καὶ μόνον προτρέπειν δύνασθαι, τῶν δ’ ἀφρόνων μηδένα· κατὰ γὰρ ⟨ἀρετῆς⟩ παραγγέλματα βιοῦν μηδένα τῶν ἀφρόνων.

Λογοφιλία καὶ φιλοπονία

II.7.11k.5

Μηδ’ εἶναι φιλόλογον, λογόφιλον δὲ μᾶλλον, μέχρι λαλίας ἐπιπολαίου προβαίνοντα, μηκέτι δὲ καὶ τοῖς ἔργοις ἐκβεβαιούμενον τὸν τῆς ἀρετῆς λόγον. Μηδὲ γὰρ φιλόπονόν τινα τῶν φαύλων εἶναι· τὴν γὰρ φιλοπονίαν διάθεσιν ἐξεργαστικὴν εἶναι τῶν ἐπιβαλλόντων ἀνυπόπτως διὰ πόνου, οὐδένα δὲ τῶν φαύλων ἀνυπόπτως ἔχειν πρὸς τὸν πόνον.

Stobaeus, Volume II: Book II Chapter 7

p. 341

Philosophy in Deeds

II.7.11k.4

For readiness to practice philosophy belongs, not to someone who listens eagerly and takes notes on what philosophers say, but to someone ready to carry philosophy’s precepts into deeds and live according to them.⁴⁴⁷ No base person is like this, being already possessed by the beliefs of vice. For if a base person had been turned toward virtue, he would also have been turned away from vice. No one who possesses vice has been turned toward virtue, just as no one who is ill has been turned toward health. Only the wise person has been turned toward virtue, and only he can turn others; no foolish person can, for no foolish person lives according to the precepts ⟨of virtue⟩.⁴⁴⁸

Love of Talk and Love of Effort

II.7.11k.5

He is not a lover of learning but rather a lover of talk, going only as far as superficial chatter and failing to confirm the account of virtue in deeds.⁴⁴⁹ Nor is any base person a lover of effort. For love of effort is a disposition to carry out what falls to one, without misgiving, through toil; no base person faces toil without misgiving.⁴⁵⁰

447.Ὑπομνηματιζόμενον includes making notes or memoranda. The contrast is explicitly between eager reception of philosophical discourse and readiness to put its precepts into practice; the English preserves both parts.

448.The illness analogy uses an accomplished turning, expressed by the perfect τέτραπται, rather than merely wishing to become healthy. The argument sets its criterion by actual life according to virtue. Wachsmuth supplies ἀρετῆς to identify whose precepts conclude the paragraph; its English equivalent remains bracketed.

449.The reversal φιλόλογος / λογόφιλος turns “loving discourse” into “loving talk.” The explanation is practical: superficial speech does not establish the account of virtue through action. The English retains the repeated λόγος without turning the distinction into a criticism of literary study as such.

450.Φιλοπονία retains “love of effort,” as at II.7.5b2.5, where the corresponding definition calls it knowledge. Here it is a διάθεσις, disposition, and the text prints διὰ πόνου, “through toil.” The repeated ἀνυπόπτως, “without misgiving,” qualifies both the definition and the denial concerning the base.

About This Reading Edition

The complete surviving text of Stobaeus’s second book, through II.46.22, in Ancient Greek and English, with an introduction and 1,541 explanatory notes. All forty-six chapter headings remain, including the notices for chapters whose texts are missing.

Historical Text and Translation

Greek: Curt Wachsmuth, Ioannis Stobaei Anthologii libri duo priores, volumen II (Berlin: Weidmann, 1884), printed p. 1 and pp. 3–264. The supplied edition preserves consequential editorial signs, reconstructed joins, qualified attributions, and missing-text notices. English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes: Diotimos Editions, 2026.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

Stobaeus’s ancient Greek work and Wachsmuth’s 1884 edition are in the public domain. The supplied English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes are published with the site owner’s authorization.