stone. He thought it
proper for the young to look constantly in the mirror, so that if they
had beauty they might prove themselves worthy of it, and if they were
ugly, that they might conceal their ugliness by their accomplishments.

When he had invited rich friends to dinner, and Xanthippe was ashamed,
he said, "Do not be troubled. If they are sensible, they will bear
with us. If not, we shall care nothing for them." Most men, he said,
lived to eat; but he ate to live. As to those who showed regard for
the opinions of the ignoble multitude, he said it was as if a man
should reject one tetradrachm [coin] as worthless, but accept a heap
of such coins as good. When AEschines said, "I am poor and have nothing
else, but I give you myself," he said, "Do you then not realize you
are offering me the greatest of gifts?" To him who said, "The
Athenians have condemned you to death," he responded, "And nature has
condemned them also thereto:" though some ascribe this to Anaxagoras.
When his wife exclaimed, "You die innocent!" he answered, "Do you wish
I were guilty?"

When a vision in sleep seemed to say:--

"Three days hence thou'lt come to the fertile region of Phthia,"

he said to AEschines, "On the third day I shall die." When he was to
drink the hemlock, Apollodorus gave him a fine garment to die in: "But
why," quoth he, "is this garment of mine good enough to live in, but
not to perish in?" To him who said, "So-and-so speaks ill of you," he
answered, "Yes, he has not learned to speak well." When Antisthenes
turned the ragged side of his cloak to the light, he remarked, "I see
your vanity through your cloak." He declared we ought to put
ourselves expressly at the service of the comedy writers: "For if they
say anything about us that is true, they will correct us; and if what
they say be untrue, it does not concern us at all."

When Xanthippe had first reviled him, then drenched him with water,
"Didn't I tell you," said he, "it was thundering and would soon rain?"
To Alcibiades, who said Xanthippe's scolding was unbearable, he
replied, "I am accustomed to it, as to a constantly creaking pulley.
And you," he added, "endure the cackling of geese." Alcibiades said,
"Yes, for they bring me eggs and goslings." "And Xanthippe," retorted
Socrates, "bears me children." Once when she pulled off his cloak in
the agora, his friends advised him to defend himself with force.
"Yes," said he, "by Jove, so that as we fight, each of you