Oriental wit and wisdom, or, the "Laughable stories" / collected by Mar Gregory John Bar-Hebraeus ; translated from the Syriac by E. A. Wallis Budge.

  • Bar Hebraeus
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Oriental wit and wisdom, or, the "Laughable stories" / collected by Mar Gregory John Bar-Hebraeus ; translated from the Syriac by E. A. Wallis Budge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Chapter* PROFITABLE SAYINGS OF THE GREEK PHILOSOPHERS. I. A certain disciple of Socrates said unto him, “How is it that I see in thee no sign of sorrow.^” So¬ crates replied, “Because I possess nothing for which “I should sorrow if it perished.” II. Another [disciple] said unto him, “If the vessel “wherein thou hidest were to be broken, what wouldst “thou do?” Socrates replied, “Even if the vessel were “to be broken, the place in which it is would not be “broken.” III. To Socrates the wife of a certain man said, “How “ugly is thy face, O Socrates!” And Socrates replied unto her, saying, “If thou thyself hadst been a clean “mirror I should have been distressed [by thy words]; “but since thou art a dirty one my beauty is not re- “flected by thee. I do not, however, blame thee be- “cause of it.” IV. Socrates saw a woman who had hanged herself on a tree, and he said, “Would that all trees bore such “fruit as this!” V. A certain woman saw Socrates as they were carrying him along to crucify^ him, and she wept and said, “Woe is me, for they are about to slay thee “without having committed any offence.” And Socrates ^ See the note to story No. XCIII.