Golden Sayings   

some gracious God through him. Else it would never have entered
his head to tell me them--he that is not used to speak to any
one thus. Well, then, let us not lie under the wrath of God, but
be obedient unto Him."---Nay, indeed; but if a raven by its
croaking bears thee any sign, it is not the raven but God that
sends the sign through the raven; and if He signifies anything to
thee through human voice, will He not cause the man to say these
words to thee, that thou mayest know the power of the Divine--
how He sends a sign to some in one way and to others in another,
and on the greatest and highest matters of all signifies His will
through the noblest messenger?
What else does the poet mean:--

I spake unto him erst Myself, and sent
Hermes the shining One, to check and warn him,
The husband not to slay, nor woo the wife!

LIV

In the same way my friend Heraclitus, who had a trifling
suit about a petty farm at Rhodes, first showed the judges that
his cause was just, and then at the finish cried, "I will not
entreat you: nor do I care what sentence you pass. It is you who
are on your trial, not I!"--And so he ended the case.

LV

As for us, we behave like a herd of deer. When they flee
from the huntsman's feathers in affright, which way do they
turn? What haven of safety do they make for? Why, they rush upon
the nets! And thus they perish by confounding what they should
fear with that wherein no danger lies. . . . Not death or pain is
to be feared, but the fear of death or pain. Well said the poet
therefore:--
Death has no terror; only a Death of shame!

LVI

How is it then that certain external things are said to be
natural, and other contrary to Nature?
Why, just as it might be said if we stood alone and apart
from others. A foot, for instance, I will allow it is natural
should be clean. But if you take it as a foot, and as a thing
which does not stand by itself, it will beseem it (if need be) to
walk in the mud, to tread on thorns, and sometimes even to be cut
off, for the benefit of the whole body; else it is no longer a
foot. In some such way we should conceive of ourselves also. What
art thou?--A man.--Looked at as standing by thyself and
separate, it is natural for thee in health and wealth long to
live. But looked at as a Man, and only as a part of a Whole, it