Plutarch, De capienda ex inimicis utilitate, Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator), 8

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

← Previous Next →

[8] But, quite apart from this, control over the tongue, which is no small part of virtue, is something which it is impossible to keep always in subjection and obedience to the reasoning faculties, unless a man by training, practice, and industry has mastered the worst of his emotions, such as anger, for example. For the voice that slips out unintended,¹ and the

Word that has ’scaped the lips’ prison,²

and

Some of the sayings that flit forth of themselves,³

are all incident to temperaments that are quite untrained, and are unsteady and fluctuating, so to speak, owing to weakness of will, headstrong opinions, and a reckless way of living. Just for a word, the lightest thing in the world, is ordained, according to the divine Plato,⁴ heaviest punishment, coming from both gods and men. But silence cannot under any circumstances be called to an accounting (it is more than a preventive of thirst, as Hippocrates ⁵ says of it), and in the midst of reviling it is ⁶ dignified and Socratic, or rather Heraclean, if it be true that Heracles

Not so much as to a fly gave heed to words of hatred.⁷

Indeed, there is nothing more dignified and noble than to maintain a calm demeanour when an enemy reviles one,

Passing by a man’s scoffs Just as swimmers swim past a precipitous rock,⁸

but far more important is the practice. If you once acquire the habit of bearing an enemy’s abuse in silence, you will very easily bear up under a wife’s attack when she rails at you, and without discomposure will patiently hear the most bitter utterances of a friend or a brother; and when you meet with blows or missiles at the hands of a father or mother, you will show no sign of passion or wrath. For instance, Socrates bore with Xanthippe,⁹ who was irascible and acrimonious, for he thought that he should have no difficulty in getting along with other people if he accustomed himself to bear patiently with her; but it is much better to secure this training from the scurrilous, angry, scoffing, and abusive attacks of enemies and outsiders, and thus accustom the temper to be unruffled and not even impatient in the midst of reviling.

De capienda ex inimicis utilitate. Plutarch. Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1928.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

How To Profit By One's Enemies (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. II. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1928 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Πῶς ἄν τις ἀπ’ ἐχθρῶν ὠφελοῖτο Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol I. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1888.) — 8 focus

[8] ἄνευ δὲ τούτου τὴν περὶ τὴν¹ γλῶτταν ἐγκράτειαν, οὐ μικρὸν ἀρετῆς μέρος οὖσαν, ὑπήκοον 90c ἀεὶ τῷ λογισμῷ καὶ πειθήνιον ἔχειν οὐκ ἔνεστιν, ἂν μή τις ἀσκήσει καὶ μελέτῃ καὶ φιλοπονίᾳ τὰ κάκιστα τῶν παθῶν, οἷόν ἐστιν ἡ ὀργή, κατεργάσηται. 15 ἡ γὰρ ἀκουσίως ἐκπίπτουσα φωνὴ καὶ τὸ

ἔπος φύγεν ἕρκος ὀδόντων,

καὶ τὸ ἔνια ἐξίπτασθαι τῶν ῥημάτων αὐτόματα τοῖς ἀνασκήτοις μάλιστα θυμοῖς οἷον ὀλισθάνουσι καὶ διαρρέουσιν ἐπιγίγνεται διʼ ἀσθένειαν θυμοῦ, 20 διʼ ἀκρατῆ γνώμην, διαίτῃ θρασείᾳ.² λόγου δὲ κουφοτάτου πράγματος βαρυτάτη ζημία κατὰ τὸν θεῖον Πλάτωνα³ καὶ παρὰ θεῶν ἕπεται καὶ παρʼ ἀνθρώπων. 90d ἡ δὲ σιγὴ πανταχοῦ μὲν ἀνυπεύθυνον οὐ μόνον ἄδιψον, ὥς φησιν Ἱπποκράτης, ἐν δὲ λοιδορίαις⁴ σεμνὸν καὶ Σωκρατικόν, μᾶλλον δʼ Ἡράκλειον , εἴ γε κἀκεῖνος οὐδʼ

ὅσσον μυίας στυγερῶν ἐμπάζετο μύθων

οὔτι⁵ μὴν τούτου σεμνότερον καὶ κάλλιόν ἐστι, τοῦ⁶ λοιδοροῦντος ἐχθροῦ τὴν ἡσυχίαν ἄγειν λισσάδα πέτραν φιλοκέρτομον ὣς παρανηχομένους, οὐδʼ ἄλλη⁷ μείζων ἄσκησις. ἂν γὰρ⁸ ἐχθρὸν ἐθισθῇς λοιδοροῦντα 5 φέρειν σιωπῇ, πάνυ ῥᾳδίως οἴσεις γυναικὸς ὀργὴν κακῶς λεγούσης, καὶ φίλου φωνὰς καὶ ἀδελφοῦ πικροτάτας ἀκούων ὑπομενεῖς ἀθορύβως· πατρὶ δὲ καὶ μητρὶ τυπτόμενος καὶ βαλλόμενος παρέξεις 90e ἄθυμον καὶ ἀμήνιτον σεαυτόν. ὁ μὲν γὰρ 10 Σωκράτης ἔφερε τὴν Ξανθίππην θυμοειδῆ καὶ χαλεπὴν οὖσαν, ὡς εὐκόλως συνεσόμενος ἑτέροις, ἂν ἐκείνην ὑπομένειν ἐθισθῇ· πολὺ δὲ βέλτιον ἐχθρῶν καὶ ἀλλοτρίων ἐγγυμνασάμενον βδελυρίαις καὶ ὀργαῖς καὶ σκώμμασι καὶ λοιδορίαις ἐθίσαι τὸν θυμὸν 15 ἡσυχίαν ἄγειν μηδʼ ἀσχάλλειν ἐν τῷ λοιδορεῖσθαι

Translations (1)

How a man may receive advantage and profit from his enemies. Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. I. Goodwin, William W., editor; Hartcliff, John, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 8 focus

[8] Furthermore, an exact government of the tongue is a strong evidence of a good mind, and no inconsiderable part of virtue. But since every man naturally is desirous to propagate his conceits, and without a painful force cannot smother his resentments, it is no easy task to keep this unruly member in due subjection, unless such an impetuous affection as anger be thoroughly subdued by much exercise, care, and study. For such things as saying let fall against our will, or a word flying by the range of our teeth,¹ or a speech escaping us by accident, are all likely to happen to those whose ill-exercised minds (as it were) fall and waste away, and whose course of life is licentious; and we may attribute this to hasty passion or to unsettled judgment. For divine Plato tells us that for a word, which is the lightest of all things, both Gods and men inflict the heaviest penalties.² But silence, which can never be called to account, doth not only, as Hippocrates hath observed, extinguish thirst, but it bears up against all manner of slanders with the constancy of Socrates and the courage of Hercules, who was no more concerned than a fly at what others said or did. Now it is certainly not grander or better than this for a man to bear silently and quietly the revilings of an enemy, taking care not to provoke him, as if he were swimming by a dangerous rock; but the practice is better. For whosoever is thus accustomed to endure patiently the scoffs of an enemy will, without any disturbance or trouble, bear with the chidings of a wife, the rebukes of a friend, or the sharper reproofs of a brother. When a father or mother corrects you, you will not be refractory or stubborn under the rod. Xanthippe, though she was a woman of a very angry and troublesome spirit, could never move Socrates to a passion. By being used to bear patiently this heavy sufferance at home, he was ever unconcerned, and not in the least moved by the most scurrilous and abusive tongues he met withal abroad. For it is much better to overcome boisterous passions and to bring the mind into a calm and even frame of spirit, by contentedly undergoing the scoffs, outrages, and affronts of enemies, than to be stirred up to choler or revenge by the worst they can say or do.

Notes on the current edition

How to Profit By One's Enemies

1. A picturesque experssion several times used by Homer, e.g. Il. iv. 350; xiv. 83; Od. i. 64; xxiii. 70. The source of the other two quotations is unknown.

2. A picturesque experssion several times used by Homer, e.g. Il. iv. 350; xiv. 83; Od. i. 64; xxiii. 70. The source of the other two quotations is unknown.

3. A picturesque experssion several times used by Homer, e.g. Il. iv. 350; xiv. 83; Od. i. 64; xxiii. 70. The source of the other two quotations is unknown.

4. Plato, Laws, pp. 717 C and 935 A. Plutarch quotes it again in Moralia, 456 D and 505 C.

5. Cf. Moralia, 515 A.

6. e.g. II. iv. 350; xiv. 83; Od. i. 64; xxiii. 70. The source of the other two quotations is unknown. b Plato, Laws, pp. 717 c and 935 a. Plutarch quotes it again in Moralia, 456 d and 505 c. c Cf. Moralia, 515 a.

7. Source unknown; the story in Pausanias, v. 14, is not to the point.

8. The source of the quotation is not known.

9. Xenophon, Symposium, 2. 10.

Plutarch De capienda ex inimicis utilitate 8

Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator)

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Current edition Perseus

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers