Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Let's Agree to Disagree, Part II
Euenus, fragment 1 (tr. M.L. West):
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Many men tend to contradict on every point,Related post: Let's Agree to Disagree.
but contradicting rightly's out of vogue.
Well, as for them there's one old saw that's all we need:
'you can keep your opinion, I'll keep mine.'
But the intelligent are soon persuadable
by reason, and they're easiest to teach.
πολλοῖς δ᾽ ἀντιλέγειν ἔθος περὶ παντὸς ὁμοίως,
ὀρθῶς δ᾽ ἀντιλέγειν, οὐκέτι τοῦτ᾽ ἐν ἔθει.
καὶ πρὸς μὲν τούτους ἀρκεῖ λόγος εἷς ὁ παλαιός·
"σοὶ μὲν ταῦτα δοκοῦντ᾽ ἔστω, ἐμοὶ δὲ τάδε."
τοὺς ξυνετοὺς δ᾽ ἄν τις πείσειε τάχιστα λέγων εὖ,
οἵπερ καὶ ῥῄστης εἰσὶ διδασκαλίης.
