ἱστορίαι Historiai
D.L. 7.19-21 Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Volume II (Books VI-X), Diogenes Laertius; served verbatim
youth was putting a question with more curiosity than became his years, whereupon Zeno led him to a mirror, and bade him look in it ; after which he inquired if he thought it became anyone who looked like that to ask such questions. Some one said that he did not in general agree with Antisthenes, whereupon Zeno produced that author's essay on Sophocles, and asked him if he thought it had any excellence ; to which the reply was that he did not know. " Then are you not ashamed," quoth he, " to pick out and mention anything wrong said by Antisthenes, while you suppress his good things without giving them a " thought ? Some one having said that he thought the chainarguments of the philosophers seemed brief and curt, Zeno replied, " You are quite right ; indeed, the very syllables ought, if possible, to be clipped." Some one remarked to him about Polemo, that his discourse was different from the subject he announced. He replied with a frown, " Well, what value would you have set upon what was given out ? " He said that when conversing we ought to be earnest and, like actors, we should have a loud voice and great strength ; but we ought not to open the mouth too wide, which is what your senseless chatterbox does. " Telling periods," he said, " unlike the works of good craftsmen, should need no pause for the contemplation of their excellences ; on the contrary, the hearer should be so absorbed in the discourse itself as to have no leisure even to take notes." Once when a young man was talking a good deal, he said, " Your ears have slid down and merged in your tongue." To the fair youth, who gave it as his opinion that the wise man would not fall in love,

The Greek stands ready in the workroom; the English is served. Both faces will read together.

← D.L. 7.17-19 contents D.L. 7.21-23 →

Filed here — the addresses this episode attests; counted by the house’s first pass
Antisthenes — a candidate entry Polemo — a candidate entry Zeno — a candidate entry

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)