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"But, Diogenes, I am a poor man, and if it should not be to my advantage to keep the servant, I shall dispose of him." "In that case," he rejoined, "are you not ashamed, in the first place, to deceive the purchaser by selling him a bad slave? For either you will conceal the truth or be unable to sell him. p42914 Further, if a man sells a cloak or a utensil that is not what it purports to be, or an animal that is diseased and useless, he must take it back; so, by selling you will be none the better off. And even if you shall be able to deceive somebody and he shall not be aware of the slave's depravity, are you not afraid of the money? For perhaps you will buy another still worse slave if you chance upon a seller who is too shrewd for you. Or perhaps you will use the money received for something that will harm you. For by no means in every case does money help those who have gotten it; but men have suffered many more injuries and many more evils from money than from poverty, particularly when they lacked sense. 15 Are you going to try to secure first, not that other thing, which will enable you to derive profit from everything and to order all your affairs well, but in preference to wisdom are you going to seek riches or lands or teams of horses or ships or houses? You will become their slave and will suffer through them and perform a great deal of useless labour, and will spend all your life worrying over them without getting any benefit whatsoever from them. 16 Consider the beasts yonder and the birds, how much freer from trouble they live than men, and how much more happily also, his much healthier and stronger they are, and how each of them lives the longest life possible, although they have neither hands nor human intelligence. And yet, to counter-balance these and their other limitations, they have one very great blessing — they own no property."
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Ἀλλ᾽, ῶ Διόγενες, πένης τέ εἰμι καὶ εἰ μὴ συμφέροι κεκτῆσθαι τὸν οἰκέτην, ἀποδώσομαι αὐτόν. Ἔπειτα, ἔφη, οὐκ αἰσχύνῃ, πρῶτον μὲν ἐξαπατῶν τὸν ἀνθρώπων, πονηρὸν αὐτῷ ἀποδιδόμενος; ἢ γὰρ οὐκ ἐρεῖς τἀληθὲς ἢ οὐ δυνήσῃ p428ἀποδόσθαι αὐτόν. 14 πρὸς δὲ τούτοις, ἐάν τις ἱμάτιον ἀποδῷ κίβδηλον ἢ σκεῦος ἢ κτῆνος νοσοῦν τε καὶ ἄχρηστον, ἀνάγκη αὐτὸ ἀπολαμβάνειν, ὥστε οὐδὲν ἔσται σοι πλέον. εἰ δὲ καὶ δυνήσῃ ἐξαπατῆσαί τινα κἀκεῖνος οὐκ αἰσθήσεται τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τῆς πονηρίας, τὸ ἀργύριον οὐ δέδοικας; ἴσως μὲν γὰρ ἄλλον ὠνήσῃ φαυλότερον, ἐὰν δριμυτέρου τύχης ἢ κατὰ σε τοῦ ἀποδιδομένου· τυχὸν δὲ εἰς ἄλλο τι χρήσῃ λαβὼν ἀφ᾽ οὐ βλαβήσῃ. οὐ γὰρ δὴ ἀεί ποτε τὸ ἀργύριον ὠφέλει τοὺς κτησαμένους, ἀλλὰ πολλῷ πλείονας βλάβας καὶ πλείω κακὰ πεπόνθασιν ἄνθρωποι ὑπὸ ἀργυρίου ἢ ὑπὸ πενίας, ἄλλως τε ἀνόητοι ὄντες. 15 οὐκ ἐκεῖνο πρότερον κτήσασθαι σπουδάσεις ᾧ δυνήσῃ ὑπὸ παντὸς ὠφελεῖσθαι καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς αὑτοῦ πράγμασι χρῆσθαι καλῶς, ἀλλὰ πρὸ τοῦ φρονῆσαι ζητήσεις ἀργύριον ἢ γῆν ἢ ἀνδράποδα ἢ ζεῦγος ἢ πλοῖον ἢ οἰκίαν; οἷς σὺ δουλεύσεις καὶ λυπήσῃ δι᾽ αὐτὰ καὶ πολλὰ πονήσεις μάτην καὶ διατελέσεις ἅπαντα τὸν βίον φροντίζων ἐκείνων, ὀνήσῃ δὲ οὐδ᾽ ὁτιοῦν ἀπ᾽ αὐτῶν. 16 οὐχ ὁρᾷς τὰ θηρία ταῦτα καὶ τὰ ὄρνεα, ὅσῳ ζῇ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀλυπότερον, πρὸς δὲ καὶ ἥδιον, καὶ μᾶλλον ὑγιαίνει καὶ πλέον ἰσχύει καὶ ζῇ χρόνον ἕκαστον αὐτῶν ὅσον πλεῖστον δύναται, καίτοι οὔτε χεῖρας ἔχοντα οὔτε ἀνθρώπου διάνοιαν; ἀλλ᾽ ὅμως ἀντὶ πάντων αὐτοῖς τῶν ἄλλων κακῶν ὑπάρχει μέγιστον ἀγαθόν, ὅτι ἀκτήμονά ἐστιν.
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