68
Nicias was so intent on business, that he often asked his domestics whether he had bathed and whether he h.ad dined.
69
While Archimedes was intent on his diagrams, his servants drew him away by violence, and anointedThe ancients anointed the body every day. - C. him; and after his body was anointed, he traced his figures upon that.
70
When Lampis, the naval commander, was asked how he acquired wealth, he answered, that great wealth cost but little trouble, but that a little wealth [at the beginning] cost a great deal.
71
When Solon was silent at an entertainment, and was asked by Periander whether he was silent for want of words or from folly, No fool, answered he, can be silent at a feast.
72
Consult nothing so much, upon every occasion, as discretion. Now, it is more discreet to be silent than to speak, and to omit speaking whatever is not accompanied with sense and reason.
73
As light-houses in harbors, by kindling a great flame from a few fagots, afford a considerable assistance to ships wandering on the sea; so an illustrious person, in a state harassed by storms, confers great benefits on his fellow-citizens, when himself contented with little.
74
You would certainly, if you undertook to steer a ship, learn the steersman’s art. And as in that case you can steer the whole ship, so, in another case, the whole state.
75
If you have a mind to adorn your city by consecrated monuments, first consecrate in yourself the most beautiful monument,—of gentleness and justice and benevolence.
