‹‹‹ Vitr. 6.0.2 | Table of Contents | Vitr. 6.0.4 ›››
3Epicurus also says, that fortune is of little assistance to the wise, since all that is of consequence or necessary may be obtained by the exercise of the mind and understanding. The poets, not less than the philosophers, have argued in this way; and those who formerly wrote the Greek comedies delivered the same sentiments in verse; as Euchrates, Chionides, Aristophanes, and, above all, Alexis, who said, that the Athenians deserved particular commendation, since, inasmuch as the laws of all the Greeks make it imperative on children to support their parents, those of the Athenians are only obligatory on those children who have been instructed, by the care of their parents, in some art. Such as possess the gifts of fortune are easily deprived of them: but when learning is once fixed in the mind, no age removes it, nor is its stability affected during the whole course of life.
3And Epicurus, in much the same way, says that the wise owe little to fortune; all that is greatest and essential is under the direction of the thinking power of the mind and the understanding. Many other philosophers have said the same thing. Likewise the poets who wrote the ancient comedies in Greek have expressed the same sentiments in their verses on the stage: for example, Eucrates, Chionides, Aristophanes, and with them Alexis in particular, who says that the Athenians ought to be praised for the reason that, while the laws of all Greeks require the maintenance of parents by their children, the laws of the Athenians require this only in the case of those who have educated their children in the arts. All the gifts which fortune bestows she can easily take away; but education, when combined with intelligence, never fails, but abides steadily on to the very end of life.