| 1. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 7.9.6 (4th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •sound reasoning Found in books: Wilson, The Sentences of Sextus (2012) 110 |
| 2. Menander, Monostichoi, 68 (4th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •sound reasoning Found in books: Wilson, The Sentences of Sextus (2012) 110 |
| 3. Plautus, Curculio, 21-22 (3rd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Wilson, The Sentences of Sextus (2012) 103 |
4. Cicero, On The Nature of The Gods, 1.92 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •sound reasoning Found in books: Wilson, The Sentences of Sextus (2012) 106 | 1.92. But do you think they were all madmen who thought that a Deity could by some possibility exist without hands and feet? Does not even this consideration have weight with you when you consider what is the use and advantage of limbs in men, and lead you to admit that the Gods have no need of them? What necessity can there be of feet, without walking; or of hands, if there is nothing to be grasped? The same may be asked of the other parts of the body, in which nothing is vain, nothing useless, nothing superfluous; therefore we may infer that no art can imitate the skill of nature. Shall the Deity, then, have a tongue, and not speak — teeth, palate, and jaws, though he will have no use for them? Shall the members which nature has given to the body for the sake of generation be useless to the Deity? Nor would the internal parts be less superfluous than the external. What comeliness is there in the heart, the lungs, the liver, and the rest of them, abstracted from their use? I mention these because you place them in the Deity on account of the beauty of the human form. Depending on these dreams, not only Epicurus, Metrodorus, and Hermachus declaimed against Pythagoras, Plato, and Empedocles, but that little harlot Leontion presumed to write against Theophrastus: indeed, she had a neat Attic style; but yet, to think of her arguing against Theophrastus! So much did the garden of Epicurus abound with these liberties, and, indeed, you are always complaining against them. Zeno wrangled. Why need I mention Albutius? Nothing could be more elegant or humane than Phaedrus; yet a sharp expression would disgust the old man. Epicurus treated Aristotle with great contumely. He foully slandered Phaedo, the disciple of Socrates. He pelted Timocrates, the brother of his companion Metrodorus, with whole volumes, because he disagreed with him in some trifling point of philosophy. He was ungrateful even to Democritus, whose follower he was; and his master Nausiphanes, from whom he learned nothing, had no better treatment from him. 1.92. Did you think they were all out of their minds because they pronounced that god can exist without hands or feet? Does not even a consideration of the adaptation of man's limbs to their functions convince you that the gods do not require human limbs? What need is there for feet without walking, or for hands if nothing has to be grasped, or for the rest of the list of the various parts of the body, in which nothing is useless, nothing without a reason, nothing superfluous, so that no art can imitate the cunning of nature's handiwork? It seems then that god will have a tongue, and will not speak; teeth, a palate, a throat, for no use; the organs that nature has attached to the body for the purpose of procreation — these god will possess, but to no purpose; and not only the external but also the internal organs, the heart, lungs, liver and the rest, which if they are not useful are assuredly not beautiful — since your school holds that god possesses bodily parts because of their beauty. |
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5. Septuagint, 4 Maccabees, 1.3, 1.30-1.31, 5.22-5.23, 6.35, 13.7 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •sound reasoning Found in books: Wilson, The Sentences of Sextus (2012) 106, 110 | 1.3. If, then, it is evident that reason rules over those emotions that hinder self-control, namely, gluttony and lust, 1.30. For reason is the guide of the virtues, but over the emotions it is sovereign. Observe now first of all that rational judgment is sovereign over the emotions by virtue of the restraining power of self-control. 1.31. Self-control, then, is domice over the desires. 5.22. You scoff at our philosophy as though living by it were irrational, 5.23. but it teaches us self-control, so that we master all pleasures and desires, and it also trains us in courage, so that we endure any suffering willingly; 6.35. And I have proved not only that reason has mastered agonies, but also that it masters pleasures and in no respect yields to them. 13.7. o the seven-towered right reason of the youths, by fortifying the harbor of religion, conquered the tempest of the emotions. |
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| 6. Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies, 2.11.51.6 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •sound reasoning Found in books: Wilson, The Sentences of Sextus (2012) 110 |
| 7. Cleitarchus, Sententiae, 85-86 (missingth cent. CE - Unknownth cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Wilson, The Sentences of Sextus (2012) 110 |
