Thoughts on Truth - Philosophy

As for Antiphon, he cleaves to the severe, old-fashioned style, and does not engage personally in either politcal debates or in law-suits. - Dionysius of Helicarnasus, On Isaeus 20 = A13, expanded

In his speeches he is accurate and persuasive, clever in invention and ingenious in presenting difficult cases; he tends to take an unexpected line, and he aims his arguments at both the laws and the emotions, aiming above all at what is suitable to each occasion. - Pseudo-Plutarch, Lives of the Ten Orators 832B-834B

while showing political acumen in the clarity and practicality and, in other respects, the expressive quality of his style, all of which contribute to persuasiveness. - Hermogenes of Tarsus, Peri Ideon, B399, 18 Rabe

And a great-spirited man would consider more what one virtuous man thinks than what many ordinary men think, as Antiphon after his condemnation said to Agathon when he praised his speech for his defense. Aristotle, Eudemian Ethics III 5, 1232b6-9

[philosophy stuff] pg. 141

We recognize and respect , whereas those of communities far away we neither respect nor revere. In this, however, we have become barbarized toward one another, whereas in fact, as far as nature is concerned, we are all equally adapted to being either barbarians or Greeks. We have only to think of things which are natural and necessary to all mankind; these are available to all in the same way, and in all these there is no distinction between barbarian or Greek. For we all breathe out into the air by the mouth and the nostrils, and we laugh when we are pleased in our mind, or we weep when we are grieved, and we receive sounds with our hearing, and see by the light of our vision, and we work with our hands, and we walk with our feet. - Papyrus Oxyrhynchus XI 1364

Justice, then ... are harmed. pg. 150-153

Moreover, concord is agreed to be the greatest good for states, and very commonly in various states the senates and the best people call upon the citizens to 'be of one mind'; and everywhere in Greece there is a law which prescribes that the citizens should take an oath to 'be of one mind', and everywhere this oath is taken. The purpose of this, I take it, is not that the citizens may come to the same decision in choral competitions, or commend the same flute-players, or choose the same poets, or take pleasure in the same things, but that they may obey the laws; for it is when the citizens abide by these that states become strongest and happiest, but without concord a state cannot be well organized nor even a household well administered. Xenophon, Memorabilia IV 4,16

The whole of life is wonderfully easy to find fault with, my good fellow; it has nothing in it special or great or wonderful, but everything is small and weak and of short duration and mixed with great sorrows. - Stobaeus, Anthology IV 34, 56 = B51

One cannot just take back one's life like a piece at draughts. - Harpocration, Lexicon, s.v. anathesthai = B52

Well, then, let his life progress further, and let him want marriage and a wife. That day, that night, is the beginning of a new destiny, a new fate. For marriage is a great test for a man. If the wife turns out to be incompatible, how should he deal with the situation? Divorce is a troublesome process, making enemies of your friends, people who have the same thoughts, the same feelings, as yourself, whom you respect and who respect you. But it is difficult, too, to keep such a possession, to bring home pains when you expected to acquire pleasures. But come, let us not speak of the untoward, let us talk instead of the most compatible of alliances. What is pleasanter for a man than a wife after his own heart? And what is sweeter especially when he is still young? But in that very place wherein dwells the pleasure, the painful is lurking somewhere close by. For pleasures do not come in on their own, but there follow along in their train pains and toils. Indeed, even victories in the Olympian or Pythian games and contests of that sort, and various skills and intellectual accomplishments, and all pleasures, tend to come only at the cost of great pains. For honors, prizes, those snares which god has granted to men, place them under the necessity of great toil and sweat. For I, if I had a second body which need as much care as I give to myself, could not live, considering all the trouble I give myself, what with tending to the health of my body and earning my daily livelihood, and seeing to my honor and temperance and reputation and good fame. What, then, if I actually had a second body like this one, for which I would be equally responsible? Is it not obvious, then, that a wife, even if she is after one's own heart, would nevertheless give a man as much happiness and as much pain as he gives himself, what with the concern for the health of two bodies and the gathering of a livelihood and temperance and good fame? Well, then, let us suppose that children are born. Now indeed, everything is full of worries, and the carefree flourish of youth departs from one's mind, and the expression on one's face is no longer the same. - Stobaeus, Anthology IV 22, 66 = B49

Primary among human activities, I think, is education; for when a man makes a right beginning of any matter whatsoever, it is likely that the end, too, will turn out right. For example, according to the type of seed one plants in the earth, one should expect the harvest to be of like kind; and thus, whenever one implants good education in a young body, this lives and flourishes throughout the whole of life, and neither rain nor drought will destroy it. - Stobaeus, Anthology II 31,39 = B60

There is nothing worse for men than lack of discipline. Appreciating this the men of former times accustomed their children to being disciplined and doing what they were told from the outset, so that, when they grew to manhood and experienced great change in their lives, they should not be thrown into confusion. - Stobaeus, Anthology II 31,40 = B61

With whomever a person consorts for most of the day, such he will necessarily come to be like himself in his habits. - Stobaeus, Anthology II 31, 41 = B62

For taking care of the aged is very like taking care of the young. - Clement, Stromateis, VI 19 =B66

Life is like an all-day watch-duty, and the length of a life is like a single day, so to speak, in which we look up at the light, and then pass on our own watch to others who come after us. - Stobaeus, Anthology IV 34, 63 =B50

There are some who are not content with living their present life, but are constantly in a state of eager preparation as if they were going to live some other life, not the present one; and as they are thus engaged time passes them by and runs out. - Stobaeus, Anthology III 16,20 = B53a

Those who work and are thrifty and suffer privation in order to increase their property derive the sort of pleasure from that which one would expect them to derive. On the other hand, if people diminish their possessions and use them up, they suffer such pain as if they had lost their own flesh. - Stobaeus, Anthology III 16,20 = B53

The story is told of a man who observed another man acquiring a large sum of money, and asked him to lend it to him at interest; but he refused being the sort of man who distrusted others and never helped anyone. Instead he took the money and stored it away. Another man observed him doing this, however, and stole the money. Sometime later the man who had stored it away went to collect it and found it gone. Greatly distressed by this disaster, particularly because he had not lent it to the man who had asked for it, which would both have kept the money safe for him and brought in more as well, on meeting the man who had wanted to borrow from him, he lamented his misfortune to him, saying that he had made a mistake and was sorry that he had no obliged him, but had refused, since the money was now entirely lost. The other told him not to worry about it, but rather to make believe that he still had the money in his possession and had not lost it, and to put a stone in the place where the money had been. "For you made no use of it at all when you had it, so there is no need now to think that you have lost anything." And indeed, when a man has not made use of something nor intends to make use of it, it makes no difference to him whether he has it or not, nor is he harmed either more or less by not having it. For when god does not wish to bestow benefits unreservedly upon a man, he provides him with wealth in material things, but makes him poor in good judgement, and thus, by taking away the latter, he deprives him of both. - Stobaeus, Anthology III 16,30 = B54

A man who, when proceeding against his neighbor to do him injury, is deterred by fearing that, failing to acheive what he wishes, he may end up with what he does not wish, is more prudent. For while he is afraid he delays action, and while he delays, often the passage of time diverts his mind from his purpose. When the deed is done, after all, there is no question of this, but as long as there is delay, there is a possibility of the deed also not being done. The man who thinks that he will succeed in doing his neighbor injury, and suffer none himself, is lacking in prudence. High hopes are not always a good thing; for such hopes have cast down many into incurable misfortunes, where they have turned out to suffer just those things which they thought they would inflict on their neighbors. Prudence might be predicated more correctly of no other man than one who, by putting a block on the immediate pleasures of his spirit, is able to dominate and conquer himself. He who wishes to gratify his spirit immediately, wishes what is worse instead of what is better. - Stobaeus, Anthology III 20,66 = B58

Divine nature, after all, would have acted in vain if it had simply created iron, copper, silver and gold, and had not taught us how to reach the veins of those metals; nor would he have usefully given field crops and orchard fruits to the human race without a knowledge of how to cultivate them and prepare them for food; and timber would be of no service without the carpenter's art to convert it into lumber. So, with everything that the gods have given for the benefit of humanity, there has been joined some art through which its usefulness may be grasped. - Stobaeus, Anthology I 116 = B80

Someone who has neither desired nor embarked upon shameful or evil acts cannot be described as "self-controlled"; for there is nothing which he has had to overcome in order to make himself orderly. -

Many people do not recognize the friends they have, but take on as companions flatterers who fawn on wealth and good fortune. - Suda, Flattery=B65

Recent friendships are compelling, but old friendships are more compelling. - Excerpta Vindobonensia 64=B64

pg. 172-202 The Tetralogies haven't been covered.