Once when some one was in a fury of indignation because he had bidden a passer-by good-day and the salutation was not returned, Socrates said: “It is enough to make one laugh! If you met a man in a wretched condition of body, you would not fall into a rage; but because you stumble upon a poor soul somewhat boorishly disposed, you feel annoyed.”
To the remark of another who complained that he did not take his foot with pleasure, he said: “Acumenus410 has a good prescription for that.” And when the other asked: “And what may that be?” “To stop eating,” he said. “On the score of pleasure, economy, and health, total abstinence has much in its favour.”411
And when some one else lamented that “the drinking-water in his house was hot,” he replied: “Then when you want a warm bath you will not have to wait.”
The Other. But for bathing purposes it is cold.
Soc. Do you find that your domestics seem to mind drinking it or washing in it?
The Other. Quite the reverse; it is a constant marvel to me how contentedly they use it for either purpose.
Soc. Which is hotter to the taste — the water in your house or the hot spring in the temple of Asclepius?412
The Other. The water in the temple of Asclepius.
Soc. And which is colder for bathing — yours or the cold spring in the cave of Amphiaraus?413
The Other. The water in the cave of Amphiaraus.
Soc. Then please to observe: if you do not take care, they will set you down as harder to please than a domestic servant or an invalid.414
A man had administered a severe whipping to the slave in attendance on him, and when Socrates asked: “Why he was so wroth with his own serving-man?” excused himself on the ground that “the fellow was a lazy, gourmandising, good-for-nothing dolt — fonder of money than of work.” To which Socrates: “Did it ever strike you to consider which of the two in that case the more deserves a whipping — the master or the man?”
When some one was apprehending the journey to Olympia, “Why are you afraid of the long distance?” he asked. “Here at home ............