Between two who are equally honorable and intelligent, you would choose the one with long, curly hair
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“If your friend is a good man, I don't suppose you would love him any more for being wealthy rather than poor, or for being tough and muscular rather than thin and feeble in body. In your circumstances too, then, you won't go after something more, or love it more, for being cheerful and peaceful than for being anxious and laborious. Or if you would, then between two equally good men you would also be fonder of the one who has had a bath and a rubdown than the one who is covered with dust and needs a shave. Next, you would go so far as to feel more affection for one who is uninjured and in possession of all his limbs than one who is crippled or blind in one eye. Bit by bit, you would become so finicky that between two who are equally honorable and intelligent, you would choose the one with long, curly hair! When virtue is equal in both, their inequality in other respects does not count. For all those other features are not parts of them but mere additions to them.
Within the family, does any parent make such unfair estimations as to love a healthy child more than a sick one, or a fine, tall son more than a short or middle-sized child? Wild beasts do not draw distinctions among their cubs: when they lie down to nurse, they feed them all alike. Birds distribute equal shares of food to all their nestlings. Ulysses is in just as much of a hurry to get back to his rocky isle of Ithaca as Agamemnon is to return to the noble ramparts of Mycenae. No one loves his homeland because it is great, but only because it is his.”
Seneca, Letter 66.24-26
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Between two who are equally honorable and intelligent, you would choose the one with long, curly hair
Between two who are equally honorable and intelligent, you would choose the one with long, curly hair
Between two who are equally honorable and intelligent, you would choose the one with long, curly hair
“If your friend is a good man, I don't suppose you would love him any more for being wealthy rather than poor, or for being tough and muscular rather than thin and feeble in body. In your circumstances too, then, you won't go after something more, or love it more, for being cheerful and peaceful than for being anxious and laborious. Or if you would, then between two equally good men you would also be fonder of the one who has had a bath and a rubdown than the one who is covered with dust and needs a shave. Next, you would go so far as to feel more affection for one who is uninjured and in possession of all his limbs than one who is crippled or blind in one eye. Bit by bit, you would become so finicky that between two who are equally honorable and intelligent, you would choose the one with long, curly hair! When virtue is equal in both, their inequality in other respects does not count. For all those other features are not parts of them but mere additions to them.
Within the family, does any parent make such unfair estimations as to love a healthy child more than a sick one, or a fine, tall son more than a short or middle-sized child? Wild beasts do not draw distinctions among their cubs: when they lie down to nurse, they feed them all alike. Birds distribute equal shares of food to all their nestlings. Ulysses is in just as much of a hurry to get back to his rocky isle of Ithaca as Agamemnon is to return to the noble ramparts of Mycenae. No one loves his homeland because it is great, but only because it is his.”
Seneca, Letter 66.24-26
Socrates and the Stoics is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.