Such as Aristippus uses to Diogenes, in Athenæus: Ἆρά γε μή τι σοι ἄτοπον δοκεῖ εἶναι Διογενὲς ὀικίαν ὀικεῖν, ἐν ᾗ πρότερον ᾤκησαν ἄλλοι; οὐ γάρ ἔφη. Τί δὲ ναῦν, ἐν ᾗ πολλοὶ πεπλεύκασιν; οὐδὲ τοῦτο ἔφη. Οὕτως …: “Do you see any absurdity, Diogenes, in living in a house that another person has lived in before? No, says he; or in sailing in a ship where a great many have sailed? No, nor in that neither, says he. No more is there in …” (Deipnosophistae.) Senseless stuff. Nor is that of the adulterous woman in Proverbs 30:18–20 better: where דרך גבר בעלמה: “the way of a man with a maid,” is placed with the way of an eagle in the air, of a serpent upon a rock, and of a ship in the sea, שלא יעשה בה רושם יוכר אחר שעה: “which leave no track to be seen after them;” and therefore she מקנחת פיה של מטה: “wipes her mouth,” and then thinks that אחר זה תוכל לא פעלתי און: “she may say afterwards, ‘What have I done amiss?’ ” (see Kab we-Naki.) ↩
Nemo malus felix: minimè corruptor, etc.: “No bad man can be happy; to be sure no debauchee can, etc.” (Juvenal, Satires.) ↩
Ἀναπόδραστος γὰρ ὁ θεῖος νόμος: “There is no escaping the divine law.” (Plotinus, Enneads.) ↩
Καὶ γὰρ ἂν παραντίκα κρύψῃ, ὕστερον ὀφθήσῃ: “For, if you are hid for the present, you will be found out afterwards.” (Isocrates, Demonicus.) Μαρτυρήσουσιν … ἡ κλίνη καὶ ὁ λύχνος ὁ Μεγαπένθους: “The bed, the lamp, will bear testimony, O Megapenthus.” (Lucian, Cataplus.) ↩
Ἡδονὴ μὲν γὰρ ἁπάντων ἀλαζονέστατον: “Pleasure is the aptest of anything to boast.” (Plato, Philebus.) ↩
Quid non sentit amor? “What is it that love can’t see?” (Ovid, Metamorphoses.) ↩
Ἀγαθὸν οὐ τὸ μὴ ἀδικεῖν, ἀλλὰ τὸ μηδὲ ἐθέλειν: “To be good is not only not to do an injury, but not so much as to desire to do one.” A gnome, “saying,” of Democrates. (Ethica.) ↩
אבק לשון הרע: “The dust of an ill tongue.” (Bava Batra.) ↩
המלבין פני חבירו ברבים אין לו חלק לעה״ב: “He that puts his companion to shame in public, shall have no portion in the next life.” (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilkot Deot VI, 8, and similar passages.) For, according to the Jewish doctors, he who does this breaks the sixth commandment. (Isaac Abravanel.) ↩
See how chaste the Romans were once. Quo matronale decus verecundiæ munimento tutius esset, in jus vocanti matronam corpus ejus attingere non permiserunt, ut inviolata manûs alienæ tactu stola relinqueretur: “That the decent modesty of a matron might the more securely be preserved, if any man sued her, he was not allowed so much as to touch her, that her garment might remain undefiled by the hands of any stranger.” (Valerius Maximus, De Matrimoniorum Ritu, et Necessitudinum Officiis.) And it is told of Publius Mænius, that tristi exemplo præcepit [filiæ fuæ], ut non solum virginitatem illibatam, sed etiam oscula ad virum sincera perferret: “He gave it in charge to his daughter, with a severe threat, that she should carry to her husband not only her virginity untouched, but her kisses chaste.” (Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta memorabilia.) ↩
Quanto autem præstantior est animus corpore, tanto sceleratiùs corrumpitur: “By how much the mind is more excellent than the body, by so much is the corrupting of it a greater wickedness.” (St. Augustine, De Mendacio.) ↩
Meddlers. (Editor’s note.) ↩
Οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ λοιμοὶ οἱ τὸ ἴδιον κακὸν ἐπὶ πάντας ἄγειν φιλονεικοῦντες, κ.τ.λ.: “These are the pestilent fellows, who labor to persuade everybody to be guilty of the same crimes with themselves.” (St. Basil, Homily on Psalm 1.) ↩
Omnes enim immemorem beneficii oderunt: “For everybody hates a man that forgets the kindnesses that have been done to him.” (Cicero, De Officiis.) And the same may be said of the unfaithful, perjured, etc. ↩
Quid ergo, anima … nullane habet alimenta propria? an ejus esca scientia vobis videtur? “What then, is there no proper nourishment for the mind? does not knowledge seem to be the food of it?” (St. Augustine, De Beata Vita.) ↩
Alter in alterius exitium levi compendio ducitur: “They destroy one another in the shortest way that they can.” (Seneca, De Ira.) ↩
Aristotle says a good man would be neither ἄφιλος, “without a friend,” nor πολύφιλος, “have a great number of friends.” (Nicomachean Ethics.) This is just. Therefore Seneca seems to go a little too far, when he writes, Omnes amicos habere operosum esse, satis esse inimicos non habere: “It requires great pains to make all men our friends, it is sufficient to have no enemies.” (Epistles.) ↩
Ζῶον συναγελαστικὸν ὁ ἄνθρωπος: “Man is a sociable creature.” (St. Basil, Homily on Psalm 14.) ↩
Man is, in Gregory Nazianzen’s words, τὸ πολυτροπώτατον τῶν ζώων, καὶ ποικιλώτατον: “a creature who loves to turn his thoughts to variety
