Hellenic · Golden Verses of Pythagoras · 5 of 9
The Golden Sentences of Democrates
1. If anyone will give his mind to these sentences, he will obtain many things worthy of a man, and be free from many things that are base.
2. The perfection of the soul will correct the depravity of the body; but the strength of the body without reasoning does not render the soul better.
3. He who loves the goods of the soul will love things more, divine; but he who loves the goods of its transient habitation will love things human.
4. It is beautiful to impede an unjust man; but, if this be not possible, it is beautiful not to act in conjunction with him.
5. It is necessary to be good, rather than to appear so.
6. The felicity of a man does not consist either in body or in riches, but in upright conduct and justice.
7. Sin should be abstained from, not through fear, but for the sake of the becoming.
8. It is a great thing to be wise where we ought in calamitous circumstances.
9. Repentance after base actions is the salvation of life.
10. It is necessary to be a speaker of the truth, and not to be loquacious.
11. He who does an injury is more unhappy than he who receives one.
12. It is the province of a magnanimous man to bear with mildness the errors of others.
13. It is comely not to oppose the law, nor a prince, nor one wiser than yourself.
14. A good man pays no attention to the reproofs of the depraved.
15. It is hard to be governed by these who are worse than ourselves.
16. He who is perfectly vanquished by riches, can never be just.
17. Reason is frequently more persuasive than gold itself.
18. He who admonishes a man that fancies he has intellect, labours in vain.
19. Many who have not learnt to argue rationally, still live according to reason.
20. Many who commit the basest actions often exercise the best discourse.
21. Fools frequently become wise under the pressure of misfortunes.
22. It is necessary to emulate the works and actions, and not the words of virtue.
23. Those who are naturally well disposed, know things beautiful, and are themselves emulous of them.
24. Vigour and strength of body are the nobility of cattle; but the rectitude of manners is the nobility of man.
25. Neither art nor wisdom can be acquired without preparatory learning.
26. It is better to reprove your own errors, than those of others.
27. Those whose manners are well ordered will also be orderly in their lives.
28. It is good not only to refrain from doing an injury, but even from the very wish.
29. It is proper to speak well of good works; for to do so of such as are base is the property of a fraudulent man and an impostor.
30, Many that have great learning have no intellect.
31. It is necessary to endeavour to obtain an abundance of intellect, and not pursue an abundance of erudition.
32. It is better that counsel should precede actions, than that repentance should follow them.
33. Put not confidence in all men, but in those that are worthy; for to do the former is the province of a stupid man, but the latter of a wise man.
34. A worthy and an unworthy man are to be judged not from their actions only, but also from their will.
35. To desire immoderately is the province of a boy, and not of a man.
36. Unseasonable pleasures bring forth pains.
37. Vehement desires about any one thing render the soul blind with respect to other things.
38. The love is just which, unattended with injury, aspires after things becoming.
39. Admit nothing as pleasant which is not advantageous.
40. It is better to be governed by, than to govern, the stupid.
41. Not argument but calamity is the preceptor to children.
42. Glory and wealth without wisdom are not secure possessions.
43. It is not indeed useless to procure wealth, but to procure it from injustice is the most pernicious of all things.
44. It is a dreadful thing to imitate the bad, and to be unwilling to imitate the good.
45. It is a shameful thing for a man to be employed about the affairs of others, but to be ignorant of his own.
46. To be always intending to act renders action imperfect.
47. Fraudulent men, and such as are only seemingly good, do all things in words and nothing in deeds.
48, He is a blessed man who has both
property and intellect, for he will use them well in such things as are proper.
49. The ignorance of what is excellent is the cause of error.
50. Prior to the performance of base things, a man should reverence himself.
51. A man given to contradiction, and very attentive to trifles, is naturally unadapted to learn what is proper.
52. Continually to speak without being willing to hear, is arrogance.
53. It is necessary to guard against a depraved man, lest he should take advantage of opportunity.
54. An envious man is the cause of molestation to himself, as to an enemy.
55. Not only he is an enemy who acts unjustly, but even he who deliberates about so acting.
56. The enmity of relations is far more bitter than that of strangers.
57. Conduct yourself to all men without suspicion; and be accommodating and cautious in your behaviour.
58. It is proper to receive favours, at the same time determining that the retribution shall surpass the gift.
59. When about to bestow a favour, previously consider him who is to receive it, lest being a fraudulent character he should return evil for good.
60. Small favours seasonably bestowed, become things of the greatest consequence to those who receive them.
61. Honours with wise men are capable of effecting the greatest things, if at the same time they understand that they are honoured.
62. The beneficent man is one who does not look to retribution, but who deliberately intends to do well.
63. Many that appear to be friends are not, and others, who do not appear to be friends, are so.
64. The friendship of one wise man is better than that of every fool,
65. He is unworthy to live who has not one worthy friend.
66. Many turn from their friends, if, from affluence, they fall into adversity.
67. The equal is beautiful in everything; but excess and defect to me do not appear to be so.
68. He who loves no one does not appear to me to be loved by any one.
69. He is an agreeable old man who is facetious, and abounds in interesting anecdote.
70. The beauty of the body is merely animal unless supported by intellect.
71. To find a friend in prosperity, is very easy; but in adversity, it is the most difficult of all things.
72. Not all relations are friends, but those who accord with what is mutually advantageous.
73. Since we are men, it is becoming, not to deride, but bewail, the calamities of men.
74. Good scarcely presents itself, even to those who investigate it; but evil is obvious without investigation.
75. Men who delight to blame others are not naturally adapted to friendship.
76. A woman should not be given to loquacity; for it is a dreadful thing.
77. To be governed by a woman is the extremity of insolence and unmanliness.
78. It is the property of a divine intellect
to be always intently thinking about the beautiful.
79. He who believes that Divinity beholds all things, will not sin either secretly or openly.
80. Those who praise the unwise do them a great injury.
81. It is better to be praised by another than by oneself.
82. If you cannot reconcile to yourself the praises you receive, think that you are flattered.
83. The world is a scene; life is a transition. You came, you saw, you departed.
84. The world is a mutation: life a vain opinion.
THE PYTHAGOREAN SENTENCES OF DEMOPHILUS
1. Request not of Divinity such things as, when obtained, you cannot preserve; for no gift of Divinity can ever be taken away; and on this account he does not confer that which you are unable to retain.
2. Be vigilant in your intellectual part; for sleep about this has an affinity with real death.
3. Divinity sends evil to men, not as being influenced by anger, but for the sake of purification; for anger is foreign from Divinity, since it arises from circumstances taking place contrary to the will; but nothing contrary to the will can happen to a god.
4. When you deliberate whether or not you shall injure another, you will previously suffer the evil yourself which you intend to commit. But neither must you expect any good from the evil; for the manners of everyone are correspondent to his life and actions. Every soul too is a repository, that which is good, of things good, that which is evil, of things depraved.
5. After long consultation, engage either in speaking or acting; for you have not the ability to recall either your words or deeds.
6. Divinity does not principally esteem the tongue, but the deeds of the wise; for a wise man, even when he is silent, honours Divinity.
7. A loquacious and ignorant man both in prayer and sacrifice contaminates a divine nature. The wise man therefore is
alone a priest, is alone a friend of Divinity and only knows how to pray.
8. The wise man being sent hither naked, should naked invoke him by whom he was sent; for he alone is heard by Divinity, who is not burdened with foreign concerns.
9. It is impossible to receive from Divinity any gift greater than virtue. 1
10. Gifts and victims confer no honour on Divinity, nor is he adorned with offerings suspended in temples; but a soul divinely inspired solidly conjoins us with Divinity; for it is necessary that like should approach to like.
11. It is more painful to be subservient to passions than to tyrants.
12. It is better to converse more with yourself than others.
13. If you are always careful to remember that in whatever place either your soul or body accomplishes any deed, Divinity is present as an inspector of your conduct; in all your words and actions you will venerate the presence of an inspector from whom nothing can be concealed, and will, at the
same time, possess Divinity as an intimate associate.
14. Believe that you are furious and insane in proportion as you are ignorant of yourself.
15. It is necessary to search for those wives and children which will remain after a liberation from the present life.
16. The self-sufficient and needy philosopher lives a life truly similar to Divinity, and considers the non-possession of external and unnecessary goods as the greatest wealth. For the acquisition of riches sometimes inflames desire; but not to act in any respect unjustly is sufficient to the enjoyment of a blessed life.
17. True goods are never produced by indolent habits.
18. Esteem that to be eminently good, which, communicated to another, will be increased to yourself. 1
19. Esteem those to be eminently your friends, who assist your soul rather than your body.
20. Consider both the praise and reproach of every foolish person as ridiculous,
and the whole life of an ignorant man as a disgrace.
21. Endeavour that your familiars may reverence rather than fear you; for love attends upon reverence, but hatred upon fear.
22. The sacrifices of fools are the aliment of the fire; but the offerings which they suspend in temples are the supplies of the sacrilegious.
23. Understand that no dissimulation can be long concealed.
24. The unjust man suffers greater evil while his soul is tormented with a consciousness of guilt, than when his body is scourged with whips.
25. It is by no means safe to discourse concerning Divinity with men of false opinions; for the danger is equally great in speaking to such as these, things either fallacious or true.
26. By everywhere using reason as your guide, you will avoid the commission of crimes.
27. By being troublesome to others, you will not easily escape molestation yourself.
28. Consider that as great erudition, through which you are able to bear the want of erudition, in the ignorant.
29. He who is depraved does not listen to the divine law, and on this account lives without law.
30. A just man who is a stranger, is not only superior to a citizen, but is even more excellent than a relation.
31. As many passions of the soul, so many fierce and savage despots.
32. No one is free who has not obtained the empire of himself.
33. Labour, together with continence, precedes the acquisition of every good.
34. Be persuaded that those things are not your riches which you do not possess in the penetralia of the reasoning powers.
35. Do that which you judge to be beautiful and honest, though you should acquire no glory from the performance; for the vulgar is a depraved judge of beautiful deeds.
36. Make trial of a man rather from his deeds than his discourses; for many live badly and speak well.
37. Perform great things, at the same time promising nothing great.
38. Since the roots of our nature are established in Divinity, from which also we
are produced, we should tenaciously adhere to our root; for streams also of water, and other offspring of the earth, when their roots are cut off, become rotten and dry.
39. The strength of the soul is temperance; for this is the light of a soul destitute of passions; but it is much better to die than to darken the soul through the intemperance of the body.
40. You cannot easily denominate that man happy who depends either on his friends or children, or on any fleeting and fallen nature; for all these are unstable and uncertain; but to depend on oneself and on Divinity is alone stable and firm.
41. He is a wise man, and beloved of Divinity, who studies how to labour for the good of his soul, as much as others labour for the sake of the body.
42. Yield all things to their kindred and ruling nature except liberty.
43. Learn how to produce eternal children, not such as may supply the wants of the body in old age, but such as may nourish the soul with perpetual food.
44, It is impossible that the same person can be a lover of pleasure, a lover of
body, a lover of riches, and a lover of Divinity. For a lover of pleasure is also a lover of body; but a lover of body is entirely a lover of riches; a lover of riches is necessarily unjust; and the unjust is necessarily profane towards Divinity, and lawless with respect to men. Hence, though he should sacrifice hecatombs, he is only by this means the more impious, unholy, atheistical, and sacrilegious, with respect to his intentions: and on this account it is necessary to avoid every lover of pleasure as an atheist and polluted person.
45. The Divinity has not a place in the earth more allied to his nature than a pure and holy soul.
Footnotes
31:1 Because virtue is the perfection of life, and the proper perfection of any being is the felicity of that being.
32:1 And this is the case with intellectual good.
THE SIMILITUDES OF DEMOPHILUS
1. Flattery is like painted armour, because it affords delight, but is of no use.
2. Learning is similar to a golden crown; for it is both honourable and advantageous.
3. Flighty men, like empty vessels, are easily laid hold of by the ears. 1
4. Life, like a musical instrument, being harmonized by remission and intention, becomes more agreeable.
5. Reason, like a good potter, introduces a beautiful form to the soul.
6. The intellect of wise men, like gold, possesses the greatest weight.
7. Boasting, like gilt armour, is not the same within as without.
8. Reason has the same power as an ointment, for it benefits us when we are disordered, but delights us when well.
9. Of a bad man, as of a bad dog, the silence is more to be dreaded than the voice.
10. It is neither becoming to prefer a mistress to a wife; nor flattery to a friend.
11. Garrulous men, like magpies, by their continued loquacity destroy the pleasures of conversation.
12. The Furies pursue the sins of bad men who are impious, and those also of the stupid and daring, when they grow old.
13. It is necessary that a well-educated man should depart from life elegantly, as from a banquet.
14. A port is a place of rest to a ship, but friendship, to life.
15. The reproof of a father is a pleasant medicine; for it is more advantageous than severe chastisements.
16. It is necessary that a worthy man, like a good wrestler, should oppose his weight to fortune, when acting the part of an antagonist.
17. The possession of self-sufficiency, 1 like a short and pleasant road, has much grace and but little labour.
18. Restive horses are led by the bridle, but irritable minds, by reasoning.
19. Tests, like salt, should be used sparingly.
20. Both a well-adapted shoe, and a well-harmonized life, are accompanied with but little pain.
21. Garments reaching to the feet impede the body 2; and immoderate riches, the soul.
22. To those who run in the stadium, the reward of victory is in the end of the race;
but to those who delight to labour in wisdom, the reward is in old age.
23. It is necessary that he who hastens to behold virtue as his country, should pass by pleasures, as he would by the sirens.
24. As those who sail in fair weather are wont to have things prepared against a storm, so also those who are wise in prosperity, should prepare things necessary for their assistance against adversity.
25. Garments that are made clean and bright become soiled again by use; but the soul being once purified from ignorance, remains splendid forever.
26. Fugitive slaves, although they are not pursued, are affrighted; but the unwise suffer perturbation, although they have not yet acted badly.
27. The wealth of the avaricious, like the sun when it has descended under the earth, delights no living thing.
28. The fruits of the earth spring up once a year; but the fruits of friendship at all times.
29. It is the business of a musician to harmonize every instrument; but of a well-educated man to adapt himself harmoniously to every fortune.
30. Neither the blows of a sick man, nor the threats of a stupid one, are to be feared.
31. It is necessary to provide an inward garment for the protection of the breast, and intellect as a protection against pain.
32. The diet of the sick, and the soul of the unwise, are full of fastidiousness.
33. Untaught boys confound letters, but uneducated men, things.
34, The intellect derived from philosophy is similar to a charioteer; for it is present with our desires, and always conducts them to the beautiful.
35. Time, indeed, will render the herb absinthium sweeter than honey, but circumstances may sometimes make an enemy preferable to a friend.
36. A good pilot sometimes suffers shipwreck, and a worthy man is sometimes unfortunate.
37. Thunder especially frightens children; but threats, the unwise.
38. Figure adorns a statue; but actions adorn a man,
39. It is the same thing to drink a deadly medicine from a golden cup, and to receive counsel from an injudicious friend.
40. Swallows signify fair weather; but
the discourses of philosophy, exemption from pain.
41. Orphan children have not so much need of guardians as stupid men.
42. Fortune is like a depraved rewarder of contests; for she frequently crowns him who accomplishes nothing.
43. There is need of a pilot and a wind for a prosperous navigation; but of reasoning and fortune, to effect a happy life.
44. A timid man bears armour against himself; and a fool employs riches for the same purpose.
45. It is the same thing to moor a boat by an infirm anchor, and to place hope in a depraved mind.
46. Clouds frequently obscure the sun; but the passions, the reasoning power.
47. Neither does a golden bed benefit a sick man; nor a splendid fortune, a stupid man.
48. Pure water dissolves inflammation; but mild discourse dissolves anger.
49. Austere wine is mot adapted for copious drinking, nor rustic manners for conversation.
50. The anger of an ape, and the threats of a flatterer, are to be alike regarded.
51. Of life, the first part is childhood, on which account all men are attentive to it, as to the first part of a drama.
52. It is necessary that we should be cautious in our writings, but splendid in our actions.
53. As in plants, so also in youth, the first blossoms indicate the fruit of virtue.
54. In banquets, he who is not intoxicated with wine is the more pleasant; but in prosperity, he who does not conduct himself illegally.
55. It is the same thing to nourish a serpent, and to benefit a depraved man; for gratitude is produced from neither.
56. It is rare to suffer shipwreck in fair weather; and equally so not to suffer shipwreck from want of counsel.
57. Wind inflates empty bladders; but false opinions puff up stupid men.
58. It is necessary that he who exercises himself should avoid fatigue, and he who is prosperous, envy.
59. "Measure is most excellent," says one of the wise men; to which also we being in like manner persuaded, O most friendly and pious Asclepiades, here finish the curations of life.
Footnotes
37:1 The handle of a vessel was called an ear by the Greeks.
39:1 Self-sufficiency must not be considered in the vulgar sense, as consummate arrogance; but as the internal possession of everything requisite to felicity.
39:2 Long garments or robes, both by ancients and moderns, have always been worn as marks of distinction; consequently, like riches, they are among the objects of desire; and although not so extensively pernicious, yet the philosopher very properly places them among things that are by no means free from danger; and which are neither to be embraced by everyone, nor without the greatest caution.