Key to Extra Reading: Units 16 - 20

1. Everyone [who is] uneducated is most sensible when he keeps silent, concealing his speech like the ugliest misfortune.

2. If you are married consider yourself a slave of life.

3. [Everyone] must labour; whoever bears best the fortunes sent by (lit. of) the gods is a wise man.

4. Inscribe the oath of bad men on (lit. into) water.

5. Let the man [who is] ungrateful not be considered a friend.

6. There is no burden heavier than poverty.

7. Make your accusations more pointed by keeping silent (lit. accuse more bitterly through silence).

8. Be industrious in action(s), not just in word(s).

9. Do not think that your wickedness will always go unnoticed (lit. you will always escape notice being wicked).

10. Never try to be the judge of/between two friends.

11. There is nothing in life superior to health.

12. Let reason be the guide in/of all power.

13. No-one loves anyone more than himself.

14. If anyone who is fortunate and possesses a livelihood (i.e. has a fortunate life) does (lit. will) not make trial of what is good in his house, I will never call him happy, but rather a fortunate guardian of his money. (Philemon fragment 99)

15. Many will hate you if you love yourself.

16. Not for me alone of mortal women are children dead, nor am I (lit. are we) [alone among women] deprived of my husband; countless women have endured the same life as I.

17. In [writing] (lit. of) history, if you remove the 'Why' and 'How' and 'For what purpose was what was done done' and 'Whether it had a reasonable outcome', what is left of it constitutes a prize essay, not a lesson; it gives immediate delight, but it in no way offers assistance for the future. (Polybius 3, 31,12)

18. When a Spartan woman heard that her son had been killed in battle just where (lit. as) he had been stationed, she said, 'Lay him down, and let his brother fill his post.'

19. Another Spartan woman, who had been captured and was being asked by someone if she would be good if he bought her, said, 'Also if you don't buy [me].'

20. When a man who had begun to study geometry with Euclid had learned the first theorem, he asked Euclid, 'And what advantage will I have by learning this?' And Euclid, calling his slave, said, 'Give him half a drachma since he has to make a profit out of what he learns.'

(c) Gavin Betts, Alan Henry 2001