Book A
37
Examine in three ways him who is talking with you, as superior, or as inferior, or as equal: and if he is supe- rior, you should listen to him and be convinced by him: but if he is inferior, you should convince him; if he is equal, you should agree with him; and thus you will never be guilty of being quarrelsome.
38
It is better by assenting to truth to conquer opinion, than by assenting to opinion to be conquered by truth.
39
If you seek truth, you will not seek by every means to gain a victory; and if you have found truth, you will have the gain of not being defeated.
40
Truth conquers with itself; but opinion conquers among those who are external.This is not clear.
41
It is better to live with one free man and to be without fear and free, than to be a slave with many.
42
What you avoid suffering, do not attempt to make others suffer. You avoid slavery: take care that others are not your slaves. For if you endure to have a slave, you appear to be a slave yourself first. For vice has no community with virtue, nor freedom with slavery.
43
As he who is in health would not choose to be served (ministered to) by the sick, nor for those who dwell with him to be sick, so neither would a free man endure to be served by slaves, or for those who live with him to be slaves.
44
Whoever you are who wish to be not among the number of slaves, release yourself from slavery: and you will be free, if you are released from desire. For neither Aristides nor Epaminondas nor Lycurgus through being rich and served by slaves were named the one just, the other a god, and the third a saviour, but because they were poor and delivered Hellas (Greece) from slavery.It is observed that the term just applies to Aristides; the term god was given to Lycurgus by the Pythia or Delphic oracle; the name saviour by his own citizens to Epaminondas.
