"

"At all events my name will remain."

"Inscribe it on a stone and it will remain just as well. And think,
beyond Nicopolis what memory of you will there be?"

"But I shall have a golden wreath to wear."

"If you must have a wreath, get a wreath of roses and put it on; you
will look more elegant!"

XLIV

Above all, remember that the door stands open. Be not more fearful than
children; but as they, when they weary of the game, cry, "I will play
no more," even so, when thou art in the like case, cry, "I will play no
more" and depart. But if thou stayest, make no lamentation.

XLV

Is there smoke in the room? If it be slight, I remain; if grievous,
I quit it. For you must remember this and hold it fast, that the door
stands open.

"You shall not dwell at Nicopolis!"

Well and good.

"Nor at Athens."

Then I will not dwell at Athens either.

"Nor at Rome."

Nor at Rome either.

"You shall dwell in Gyara!"

Well: but to dwell in Gyara seems to me like a grievous smoke; I depart
to a place where none can forbid me to dwell: that habitation is open
unto all! As for the last garment of all, that is the poor body; beyond
that, none can do aught unto me. This why Demetrius said to Nero: "You
threaten me with death; it is Nature who threatens you!"

XLVI

The beginning of philosophy is to know the condition of one's own mind.
If a man recognises that this is in a weakly state, he will not then
want to apply it to questions of the greatest moment. As it is, men who
are not fit to swallow even a morsel, buy whole treatises and try to
devour them. Accordingly they either vomit them up again, or suffer from
indigestion, whence come gripings, fluxions, and fevers. Whereas they
should have stopped to consider their capacity.

XLVII

In theory it is easy to convince an ignorant person: in actual life, men
not only object to offer themselves to be convinced, but hate the man
who has convinced them. Whereas Socrates used to say that we should
never lead a life not subjected to examination.

XLVIII

This is the reason why Socrates, when reminded that he should prepare
for his trial, answered: "Thinkest thou not that I have been preparing
for it all my life?"

"In what way?"

"I have maintained that which in me lay!"

"How so?"

"I have never, secretly or openly, done a wrong unto any."

XLIX

In what character dost thou now come forward?

As a witness summoned