Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers – Aristippus 71
“When Aristippus was sailing to Corinth and caught in a storm, he found himself frightened. In response to someone who said, ‘We common people feel no fear, but you philosophers are whining like cowards,’ he replied, ‘We are not worried about lives of the same value.’
Another time, when someone was boasting about his polymathy, Aristippus responded, ‘Just as those who eat and exercise the most do not enjoy better health than those who do only as much as necessary, so too a serious person is not one who has learned much, but one who has learned what is profitable.
A lawyer spoke and won a case against him, and subsequently asked, ‘What good did Socrates do you?’ Aristippus replied, ‘This: that all of the words which you spoke about me are true.’”
Εἰς Κόρινθον αὐτῷ πλέοντί ποτε καὶ χειμαζομένῳ συνέβη ταραχθῆναι. πρὸς οὖν τὸν εἰπόντα, “ἡμεῖς μὲν οἱ ἰδιῶται οὐ δεδοίκαμεν, ὑμεῖς δ’ οἱ φιλόσοφοι δειλιᾶτε,” “οὐ γὰρ περὶ ὁμοίας,” ἔφη, “ψυχῆς ἀγωνιῶμεν ἕκαστοι.” σεμνυνομένου τινὸς ἐπὶ πολυμαθείᾳ ἔφη, “ὥσπερ οὐχ οἱ τὰ πλεῖστα ἐσθίοντες καὶ γυμναζόμενοι ὑγιαίνουσι μᾶλλον τῶν τὰ δέοντα προσφερομένων, οὕτως οὐδὲ οἱ πολλὰ ἀλλ’ οἱ χρήσιμα ἀναγινώσκοντές εἰσι σπουδαῖοι.” πρὸς τὸν ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ λογογράφον δίκην εἰπόντα καὶ νικήσαντα, ἔπειτα φάσκοντα πρὸς αὐτόν, “τί σε ὤνησε Σωκράτης;”, ἔφη, “τοῦτο, τοὺς λόγους, οὓς εἶπας ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ, ἀληθεῖς εἶναι.”
