Plutarch, De Se Ipsum Citra Invidiam Laudando, ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs, 22

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[22] ἐν ἅπασιν οὖν τούτοις εὐλαβητέον ὡς ἔνι μάλιστα, μήτε συνεκπίπτοντα τοῖς ἐπαίνοις μήτε ταῖς 10 ἐρωτήσεσιν ἑαυτὸν προϊέμενον. ἐντελεστάτη δὲ τούτων εὐλάβεια καὶ φυλακὴ τὸ προσέχειν ἑτέροις ἑαυτοὺς ἐπαινοῦσι καὶ μνημονεύειν, ὡς ἀηδὲς τὸ πρᾶγμα καὶ λυπηρὸν ἅπασι, καὶ λόγος ἄλλος οὐδεὶς οὕτως ἐπαχθὴς οὐδὲ βαρύς, οὐδὲ γὰρ ἔχοντες εἰπεῖν ὅτι 15 πάσχομεν ἄλλο κακὸν ὑπὸ τῶν αὑτοὺς ἐπαινούντων, ὥσπερ φύσει βαρυνόμενοι τὸ πρᾶγμα καὶ φεύγοντες ἀπαλλαγῆναι καὶ ἀναπνεῦσαι σπεύδομεν ὅπου καὶ 547e κόλακι καὶ παρασίτῳ καὶ δεομένῳ δύσοιστον ἐν χρείᾳ καὶ δυσκαρτέρητον ἑαυτὸν ἐγκωμιάζων πλούσιός τις 20 ἢ σατράπης ἢ βασιλεύς· καὶ συμβολὰς ταύτας ἀποτίνειν μεγίστας λέγουσιν, ὡς ὁ παρὰ Μενάνδρῳ¹

σφάττει με, λεπτὸς γίνομʼ εὐωχούμενος,

τὰ σκώμμαθʼ οἷα² τὰ σοφὰ καὶ στρατηγικά,

οἷος δʼ ἀλαζών ἐστιν ἁλιτήριος.³

25 ταῦτα γὰρ οὐ πρὸς στρατιώτας μόνον οὐδὲ νεοπλούτους εὐπάρυφα καὶ σοβαρὰ διηγήματα περαίνοντας, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς σοφιστὰς καὶ φιλοσόφους καὶ στρατηγοὺς ὀγκουμένους ἐφʼ ἑαυτοῖς καὶ μεγαληγοροῦντας, εἰωθότες πάσχειν⁴ καὶ λέγειν, ἂν μνημονεύωμεν, 547f ὅτι τοῖς ἰδίοις ἐπαίνοις ἀλλότριος ἕπεται ψόγος ἀεὶ 5 καὶ γίγνεται τέλος ἀδοξία τῆς κενοδοξίας ταύτης, καὶ τὸ λυπεῖν τοὺς ἀκούοντας, ὡς ὁ Δημοσθένης φησί, περίεστιν οὐ τὸ δοκεῖν εἶναι τοιούτους, ἀφεξόμεθα τοῦ λέγειν περὶ αὑτῶν, ἂν μή τινα μεγάλα μέλλωμεν ὠφελεῖν ἑαυτοὺς ἢ τοὺς ἀκούοντας.

De Se Ipsum Citra Invidiam Laudando. Plutarch. ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs. Leipzig. 1891.

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Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Περὶ τοῦ ἑαυτὸν ἐπαινεῖν ἀνεπιφθόνως (Greek) (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol. IΙI. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1891.)

Translations (1)

How a Man May Inoffensively Praise Himself Without Being Liable to Envy Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. II. Goodwin, William W., editor; Lancaster, P., translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 22 focus

[22] We must be watchful in all these cases, that we neither of ourselves drop into our own inconvenient praises, nor be hooked into them by others. Now the best and most certain way of security is to look back upon such as we can remember guilty of this fault, and to consider how absurd and ugly it is accounted by all men, and that hardly any thing is in converse a greater disturbance than this.

Hence it is that, though there be no other quality in such persons unpleasing, yet, as if Nature had taught us to abhor and fly it, we hasten out to get a little fresh air; and even the very parasite and indigent flatterers are uneasy, when the wealthy and great men by whose scraps they live begin to admire and extol themselves; nay, they give out that they pay the greatest portion of the shot, when they must give ear to such vanities. Therefore he in Menander cries out,

They kill me—I am a macerated guest—

With their wise sayings and their soldier’s brags;

How base these gloriosos are!

But these faults are not only to be objected against common soldiers and upstarts who detain others with gaudy and proud relations of their own actions, but also against sophists, philosophers, and commanders who grow full of themselves and talk at a fastuous rate. Therefore it is fit we still remember that another’s dispraise always accompanies the indiscreet praises of ourselves; that the end of vain-glory is disgrace; and that, as Demosthenes tells us, the company will both be offended and judge otherwise of us than we would have them.¹ Let us then forbear to talk of ourselves, unless the profit that we or our hearers may thence probably reap be considerably great.

Notes on the current edition

Περὶ τοῦ ἑαυτὸν ἐπαινεῖν ἀνεπιφθόνως

1. Μενάνδρῳ] id. ib.

2. σκώμμαθ’ οἶα] σκωμμάτια Meinekius

3. ἁλιτ́ριος Duebnerus: ἀλιτήριος

4. πάσχειν W: φάσκειν

Plutarch De Se Ipsum Citra Invidiam Laudando 22

ed. Grēgorios N. Vernardakēs

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