arriving from those cities. Later on, however, he came into touch with Socrates, and derived so much benefit from him that he used to advise his own disciples to become fellowpupils with him of Socrates. He lived in the Peiraeus, and every day would tramp the five miles to Athens in order to hear Socrates. From Socrates he learned his hardihood, emulating his disregard of feeling, and thus he inaugurated the Cynic way of life. He demonstrated that pain is a good thing by instancing the great Heracles and Cyrus, drawing the one example from the Greek world and the other from the barbarians. 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 Avas, li Come with a new book, " a new pen, and new tablets, if you have a mind to (implying the need of brains as well). a 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." b When he was being initiated into the Orphic mysteries, the priest said that those admitted into these rites would be partakers of many good things
The Greek stands ready in the workroom; the English is served. Both faces will read together.
Cynic — a candidate entry Plato — a life
Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Volume II (Books VI-X), Diogenes Laertius — translated by R. D. Hicks, 1925
Apparatus shelf — Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, vol. II (R. D. Hicks translation, Loeb L185) · R. D. Hicks, Loeb Classical Library, London: William Heinemann / New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, MCMXXV (1925)
license: public-domain (US: published 1925, pre-1930 — the MCMXXV title page verified from the scan itself; only the English rectos are served, Hicks's translation)