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Saturday, April 18, 2020

Wisdom from the Early Stoics, Zeno of Citium 13


The reason he gave for this was that the man capable of giving a proper hearing to what is said and profiting by it was superior to him who discovers everything himself. For the one had merely a right apprehension, the other in obeying good counsel superadded conduct.

When he was asked why he, though so austere, relaxed at a drinking-party, he said, "Lupins too are bitter, but when they are soaked become sweet." 

Hecato too in the second book of his Anecdotes says that he indulged freely at such gatherings. And he would say, "Better to trip with the feet than with the tongue." 

"Well-being is attained by little and little, and nevertheless it is no little thing itself." (Others attribute this to Socrates.)  

—Diogenes Laërtius, 7.26

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