Antisthenes

It is a royal privilege to do good and be ill spoken of.

Antisthenes (Greek: Ἀντισθένης; c. 445-365 BCE) was a Greek philosopher, a pupil of Socrates, and founder of the Cynic school.

Sourced

• I'd rather be mad than feel pleasure.
  • Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 3; quoted also by Eusebius of Caesarea, Praeparatio Evangelica xv. 13

• It is a royal privilege to do good and be ill spoken of.
  • Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 3; quoted also by Marcus Aurelius, vii. 36

• It is better to fall in with crows than with flatterers; for in the one case you are devoured when dead, in the other case while alive.
  • Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 4

• States are doomed when they are unable to distinguish good men from bad.
  • Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 5

• As iron is eaten away by rust, so the envious are consumed by their own passion.
  • Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 5

• Once, when he was applauded by rascals, he remarked, "I am horribly afraid I have done something wrong."
  • Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 5

• Being asked what learning is the most necessary, he replied, "How to get rid of having anything to unlearn."
  • Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 7

• Pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes.
  • Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 12

• Wealth and poverty do not lie in a person's estate, but in their souls.
  • Xenophon, Symposium, iv. 34

• I have enough to eat till my hunger is stayed, to drink till my thirst is sated; to clothe myself withal; and out of doors not Callias there, with all his riches, is more safe than I from shivering; and when I find myself indoors, what warmer shirting do I need than my bare walls? what ampler greatcoat than the tiles above my head?
  • Xenophon, Symposium, iv. 34

• There is no work so mean, but it would amply serve me to furnish me with sustenance.
  • Xenophon, Symposium, iv. 35

• To all my friends without distinction I am ready to display my opulence: come one, come all; and whosoever likes to take a share is welcome to the wealth that lies within my soul.
  • Xenophon, Symposium, iv. 35

External links

• Diogenes Laërtius, Life of Antisthenes, translated by Robert Drew Hicks (1925)