He had invited some rich men and, when Xanthippe said she felt ashamed of the dinner, "Never mind," said he, "for if they are reasonable they will put up with it, and if they are good for nothing, we shall not trouble ourselves about them."
He would say that the rest of the world lived to eat, while he himself ate to live.
Of the mass of men who do not count he said it was as if some one should object to a single tetradrachm as counterfeit and at the same time let a whole heap made up of just such pieces pass as genuine.
Aeschines said to him, "I am a poor man and have nothing else to give, but I offer you myself," and Socrates answered, "Nay, do you not see that you are offering me the greatest gift of all?"
To one who complained that he was overlooked when the Thirty rose to power, he said, "You are not sorry for that, are you?"
—Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 2.34
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