Miscellanies 5.11.69

Well, then, did Isocrates in the Panathenaicus, having first asked, “Whom, then, do I call educated?”, continue: “First, those who deal well with the affairs that befall them each day, and who have a judgment that hits the right moment and is able for the most part to aim at what is advantageous; next, those who always behave fittingly and justly toward those who come near them, bearing the unpleasantness and harshness of others with good temper and ease, while showing themselves as light and moderate as possible to their companions; further, those who master their pleasures and are not overly defeated by misfortunes, but conduct themselves bravely in them and worthily of the nature we happen to share; fourth, and this is the greatest, those who are not corrupted by success, nor put out of themselves, nor made arrogant, but remain in the ranks of the sensible.” Then he adds the finishing touch to his discourse: “Those who have the disposition of their soul well attuned not to one only of these but to all of them, these I declare to be wise and perfect men, possessing all the virtues.” Do you see how even the Greeks extol the life of the one who knows, although they do not know it as one ought to understand it? What knowledge is, they do not know even in a dream.