BOOK VII
36. [From Antisthenes.] 'Tis royal to do well and be ill spoken of.[1]
37. It is a shame that while the countenance[2] is subject to the mind, taking its cast and livery from it, the mind cannot take its cast and its livery from itself.
38. It nought availeth to be wroth with things,
For they reck not of it.[3]
39. Unto the deathless Gods and to us give cause for rejoicing.[4]
40. Our lives are reaped like the ripe ears of corn,
And as one falls, another still is born.[5]
41. Though me and both my sons the Gods have spurned,
For this too there is reason.[6]
42. For justice and good luck shall bide with me.[7]
43. No chorus of loud dirges, no hysteria.[8]
44. [Citations from Plato]:
I might fairly answer such a questioner: Thou art mistaken if thou thinkest that a man, who is worth anything at all, ought to let considerations of life and death weigh with him rather than in all that he does consider but this, whether it is just or unjust and the work of a good man or a bad.[9]
45. This, O men of Athens, is the true state of the case: Wherever a man has stationed himself, deeming
- ↑ cp. Epict. iv. 6, § 20; 1 St. Peter, ii. 20. See Diog. Laert. Antisthenes § 4. Plutarch attributes the saying to Alexander.
- ↑ vii. 60.
- ↑ Eur. Bellerophon, Frag. 289; xi. 6. Twice quoted by Plutarch.
- ↑ Unknown.
- ↑ Eur. Hypsipyle, Frag. 757; xi. 6. Cic. Tusc. iii. 25, § 59. Vita omnibus metenda, ut fruges. Epict. ii. 6. 14. cp. Job v. 26.
- ↑ Eur. Antiope, Frag. 207; xi. 6.
- ↑ sc. σύμμαχον ἔσται Eur. Frag. 910. Twice quoted by Cicero (ad Att. vi. 1, §8; viii. 8, § 2). cp. Arist Ach. 661.
- ↑ Unknown.
- ↑ Plato, Apol. 28 B. Socrates is answering a question whether he is not ashamed of risking his life in a vocation such as his.
