Kitap A
6
Do not so much be ashamed of that (disgrace) which proceeds from men’s opinion as fly from that which comes from the truth.
7
If you wish to be well spoken of, learn to speak well (of others): and when you have learned to speak well of them, try to act well, and so you will reap the fruit of being well spoken of.
8
Freedom and slavery, the one is the name of virtue, and the other of vice: and both are acts of the will. But where there is no will, neither of them touches (affects) these things. But the soul is accustomed to be master of the body, and the things which belong to the body have no share in the will. For no man is a slave who is free in his will.See Schweig.’s note.
9
It is an evil chain, fortune (a chain) of the body, and vice of the soul. For he who is loose (free) in the body, but bound in the soul is a slave: but on the contrary he who is bound in the body, but free (unbound) in the soul, is free.
10
The bond of the body is loosened by nature through death, and by vice through money:He does not say this that it is bad if a man by money should redeem himself from bonds, but he means that even a bad man, if he has money, can redeem himself from the bonds of the body and so secure his liberty. Schweig. but the bond of the soul is loosened by learning, and by experience and by discipline.
11
If you wish to live without perturbation and with pleasure, try to have all who dwell with you good. And you will have them good, if you instruct the willing, and dismiss those who are unwilling (to be taught): for there will fly away together with those who have fled away both wickedness and slavery; and there will be left with those who remain with you goodness and liberty.
12
It is a shame for those who sweeten drink with the gifts of the bees, by badness to embitter reason which is the gift of the gods.
13
No man who loves money, and loves pleasure, and loves fame, also loves mankind, but only he who loves virtue.
