Fragments LXXXI-C
Fragment LXXXI. You will do the greatest services to the state, if you shall raise not the roofs of the houses, but the souls of the citizens: for it is better that great souls should dwell in small houses than for mean slaves to lurk in great houses.
Fragment LXXXII. Do not decorate the walls of your house with the valuable stones from Euboea and Sparta; but adorn the minds (breasts) of the citizens and of those who administer the state with the instruction which comes from Hellas (Greece). For states are well governed by the wisdom (judgement) of men, but not by stone and wood.
Fragment LXXXIII. As, if you wished to breed lions, you would not care about the costliness of their dens, but about the habits of the animals; so, if you attempt to preside over your citizens, be not so anxious about the costliness of the buildings as careful about the manly character of those who dwell in them.
Fragment LXXXIV. As a skilful horse-trainer does not feed (only) the good colts and allow to starve those who are disobedient to the rein, but he feeds both alike, and chastises the one more and forces him to be equal to the other: so also a careful man and one who is skilled in political power, attempts to treat well those citizens who have a good character, but does not will that those who are of a contrary character should be ruined at once; and he in no manner grudges both of them their food, but he teaches and urges on with more vehemence him who resists reason and law.
Fragment LXXXV. As a goose is not frightened by cackling nor a sheep by bleating, so let not the clamour of a senseless multitude alarm you.
Fragment LXXXVI. As a multitude, when they without reason demand of you any thing of your own, do not disconcert you, so do not be moved from your purpose even by a rabble when they unjustly attempt to move you.
Fragment LXXXVII. What is due to the state pay as quickly as you can, and you will never be asked for that which is not due.
Fragment LXXXVIII. As the sun does not wait for prayers and incantations to be induced to rise, but immediately shines and is saluted by all so do you also not wait for clappings of hands, and shouts and praise to be induced to do good, but be a doer of good voluntarily, and you will be beloved as much as the sun.
Fragment LXXXIX. Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope.
Fragment XC. We ought to stretch our legs and stretch our hopes only to that which is possible.
Fragment XCI. When Thales was asked what is most universal, he answered, Hope, for hope stays with those who have nothing else.
Fragment XCII. It is more necessary to heal the soul than the body, for to die is better than to live a bad life.
Fragment XCIII. Pyrrho used to say that there is no difference between dying and living: and a man said to him, Why then do you not die? Pyrrho replied, Because there is no difference.
Fragment XCIV. Admirable is nature, and, as Xenophon says, a lover of animated beings. The body then, which is of all things the most unpleasant and the most foul (dirty), we love and take care of; for if we were obliged for five days only to take care of our neighbour's body, we should not be able to endure it. Consider then what a thing it would be to rise in the morning and rub the teeth of another, and after doing some of the necessary offices to wash those parts. In truth it is wonderful that we love a thing to which we perform such services every day. I fill this bag, and then I empty it; what is more troublesome? But I must act as the servant of God. For this reason I remain (here), and I endure to wash this miserable body, to feed it and to clothe it.
But when I was younger, God imposed on me also another thing, and I submitted to it. Why then do you not submit, when Nature who has given us this body takes it away? I love the body, you may say. Well, as I said just now, Nature gave you also this love of the body: but Nature says, Leave it now, and have no more trouble (with it).
Fragment XCV. When a man dies young, he blames the gods. When he is old and does not die, he blames the gods because he suffers when he ought to have already ceased from suffering. And nevertheless, when death approaches, he wishes to live, and sends to the physician and intreats him to omit no care or trouble. Wonderful, he said, are men, who are neither willing to live nor to die.
Fragment XCVI. To the longer life and the worse, the shorter life, if it is better, ought by all means to be preferred.
Fragment XCVII. When we are children our parents deliver us to a paedagogue to take care on all occasions that we suffer no harm. But when we are become men, God delivers us to our innate conscience (συνειδήσε) to take care of us. This guardianship then we must in no way despise, for we shall both displease God and be enemies to our own conscience.
Fragment XCVIII. [We ought to use wealth as the material for some act, not for every act alike.]
Fragment XCIX. [Virtue then should be desired by all men more than wealth which is dangerous to the foolish; for the wickedness of men is increased by wealth. And the more a man is without sense, the more violent is he in excess, for he has the means of satisfying his mad desire for pleasures.]
Fragment C. What we ought not to do, we should not even think of doing.