Wednesday, September 16, 2015
A Saying of Simonides
Plutarch, On Preserving One's Health 7 = Moralia 125 D (tr. Frank Cole Babbitt):
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Simonides used to say that he had never been sorry for having kept silent, but many a time for having spoken.Plutarch, On Talkativeness 23 = Moralia 514 F (tr. W.C. Helmbold):
ὁ Σιμωνίδης ἔλεγε μηδέποτ᾿ αὐτῷ μεταμελῆσαι σιγήσαντι, φθεγξαμένῳ δὲ πολλάκις.
And over and above all else we must keep at hand and in our minds the saying of Simonides, that he had often repented of speaking, but never of holding his tongue.Cf. Plutarch, On the Education of Children 10 = Moralia 10 F (tr. Frank Cole Babbitt):
ἐπὶ πᾶσι δὲ καὶ παρὰ ταῦτα πάντα δεῖ πρόχειρον ἔχειν καὶ μνημονεύειν τὸ Σιμωνίδειον ὅτι λαλήσας μὲν πολλάκις μετενόησε, σιωπήσας δ᾿ οὐδέποτε.
For, again, nobody was ever sorry because he kept silent, but hundreds because they talked.
καὶ γὰρ αὖ σιωπήσας μὲν οὐδεὶς μετενόησε, λαλήσαντες δὲ παμπληθεῖς.
