“The philosopher’s school, ye men, is a surgery: you
ought not to go out of it pleased, but pained.
“For you are not in sound health when you enter; but
one has dislocated his shoulder, another has an abscess, another a fistula,
another is suffering from a headache. Do I then sit and utter to you small
thoughts and witty sayings that you may praise me and go away, one with his
shoulder just as it was when he entered, another with his head still aching,
another with his fistula, and another with his abscess?
“Is it for this, then, that young men shall quit home,
and leave their parents and their friends, and relatives and property, that
they may say to you, ‘Wonderful!’ as you utter your witty sayings? Did Socrates
do this, did Zeno, did Cleanthes?”
- Epictetus, Discourses, Book 3, Chapter 23.
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