Laudator Temporis Acti

Pseudo-Heraclitus, Epistles 7.1-2 (tr. David R. Worley):

They know, Hermodorus, that I helped you draft the laws, and they want to drive me out, but they will not before I have refuted them for having decreed unjustly that "The man who does not laugh, and every misanthrope, must leave the city before sundown." They want to make this a law. But there is no one who does not laugh, Hermodorus, except Heraclitus; consequently, they can drive me away. (2) O you men, don't you want to learn why I never laugh? It is not because I hate men but because I hate their wickedness. Write your law in this way: "If anyone hates wickedness, he must leave the city" and I shall be the first to leave.

ἴσασί με, Ἑρμόδωρε, συντεχνιτεύσαντά σοι τοὺς νόμους, κἀμὲ ἐλάσαι βούλονται , ἀλλ' οὐ πρότερον ἢ ἐλέγξαι αὐτούς, ὅτι ἄδικα ἐγνώκασι. τὸν μὴ γελῶντα καὶ πάντα μισανθρωποῦντα πρὸ ἡλίου δύνοντος ἐξιέναι τῆς πόλεως, τοῦτο νομοθετεῖν βουλεύονται, οὐδεὶς δ᾿ ἐστὶν ὁ μὴ γελῶν, Ἑρμόδωρε, ἢ Ἡράκλειτος, ὥστ᾿ ἐμὲ ἐλαύνουσιν. (2) ὦ ἄνθρωποι, οὐ θέλετε μαθεῖν, διὰ τί ἀεὶ ἀγελαστῶ; οὐ μισῶν ἀνθρώπους, ἀλλὰ κακίαν αὐτῶν. οὕτω γράψατε τὸν νόμον, "εἴ τις μισεῖ κακίαν, ἐξίτω τῆς πόλεως," καὶ πρῶτος ἔξειμι.

See id. 7.5-10 (too long to post here, especially when I have to enter the Greek manually).

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• Against Laughter
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