Gnomologium Vaticanum

Ibycus the lyric poet, when Aesop was lying in his fables and enjoying a good reputation, said: “Tell them; this is how it will go for you: one day, even when you are telling the truth, you will be disbelieved.”

Phryne the courtesan, to a young man who had sold his farm and was pale from illness, said: “Young man, why are you pale? Have you been eating earth?”

Olympias, Alexander’s mother, was asked by someone, “Why do you not adorn yourself?” She said: “Because Alexander’s adornment is enough for me.”

When her son boasted that he alone had come back safe from the battle, a Spartan woman said: “Then why are you not ashamed to be the only one alive?”

Theano the Pythagorean said: “About things it is good to speak of, it is shameful to be silent; and about things it is shameful to speak of, it is good to be silent.”

Xanthippe, asked what was the greatest thing about Socrates, said: “This: that he had the same expression in good times and in bad.”

The mother of Clearchus, son of Ramphias, when her son was accused of betraying Greece to the Persians, wrote this letter: “Your mother to Clearchus her son: an evil rumor has been spread about you. Either put it away from you, or cease to be.”

A Syracusan woman was summoned by Dionysius the tyrant, who said that he loved her and would grant her whatever she wished. She said: “Then let me go, and consider that all women are alike when the lamp is put out.”

A Spartan woman who had been taken captive was being sold; asked what she could do, she said: “Be free.”

A Spartan woman, hearing that her son had died in battle, said: “Child, what a fine return you have made to your country for your upbringing!”