Book 5
1.20
To the query, What is a friend? his reply was, A single soul dwelling in two bodies. Mankind, he used to say, were divided into those who were as thrifty as if they would live for ever, and those who were as extravagant as if they were going to die the next day. When some one inquired why we spend much time with the beautiful, That, he said, is a blind man’s question. When asked what advantage he had ever gained from philosophy, he replied, This, that I do without being ordered what some are constrained to do by their fear of the law.Cicero ascribed a similar reply to Xenocrates: ut id sua sponte facerent, quod cogerentur facere legibus (Cic. De rep. i. § 3). The question being put, how can students make progress, he replied, By pressing hard on those in front and not waiting for those behind. To the chatterbox who poured out a flood of talk upon him and then inquired, Have I bored you to death with my chatter? he replied, No, indeed; for I was not attending to you.
