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Sunday, January 24, 2021

Wisdom from the Early Cynics, Antisthenes 3


He was the first to define statement (or assertion) by saying that a statement is that which sets forth what a thing was or is. 

He used repeatedly to say, "I'd rather be mad than feel pleasure," and "We ought to make love to such women as will feel a proper gratitude." 

When a lad from Pontus was about to attend his lectures, and asked him what he required, the answer was, "Come with a new book, a new pen, and new tablets, if you have a mind to." (implying the need of brains as well). 

When someone inquired what sort of wife he ought to marry, he said, "If she's beautiful, you'll not have her to yourself; if she's ugly, you'll pay for it dearly." 

Being told that Plato was abusing him, he remarked, "It is a royal privilege to do good and be ill spoken of."

—Diogenes Laërtius, 6.3




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