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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    LI. Aristotle said, “The fool perceiveth not the sick- “ness of his mind any more than doth the drunkard “the thorn which hath entered into his hand.’’ LII. To Aristotle it was said, “Wherein art thou “better than other men?” And he replied, “Because “they live that they may eat, but I eat that I may “live.” LIII. Another philosopher married a small and thin wife, and when he was asked why he had done so re¬ plied, “I chose the lesser evil.” LIV. It was reported to Alexander that the daughters of Darius were exceedingly beautiful, and he replied, “It would be a most shameful thing for us to be con- “quered by the men [of any nation whatsoever], [how “much more^ then would it be a disgrace to us] if “their women were to do so?” LV. It happened to Socrates that he became once a fellow-traveller on the road with a rich man, and the report reached them that there were gangs of robbers and highwaymen on the road. And the rich man began to say, “Woe is me if they recognize me.” But Socrates made answer to him, saying, “I am not “of this opinion at all, woe be to them if they do not “recognize me.” LVI. A certain rich man wrote above his door, “No “evil thing shall enter in through thee.” When Dio¬ genes met him, he said unto him, “How, then, will thy “wife enter the house?” LVII. It was said to a certain philosopher while he was soaking dry bread in water to eat, “How canst ^ Compare aicTxpov ecTTiv njudg xoug dv5pa(; viKticravTag OTTO fuvaiKUJV i^TTr|0T]vai. Pseudo-Callisthenes,-ed. Muller, p. 74, col. 2.