Life of Pythagoras — Iamblichus, trans. Thomas Taylor (1818)

If you wish to live with hilarity, be unwilling to do many things. For in a multitude of actions you will be minor.

Every cup should be sweet to you which extinguishes thirst.

Fly from intoxication as you would from insanity.

No good originates from the body.

1 This is conformable to the well-known Pythagoric precept, ‘‘ Follow God.”

2“ We can by no other means,” (says Porphyry De Abstinen. lib. I.) “ obtain the true end of a contemplative intellectual life than by adbering to God, if I may be allowed the expression, as if fastened by a nail, at the same time being torn away and separated from body and corporeal delights; having procured safety from our deeds, and not from the mere attention to words.”

p. 196

Think that you suffer a great punishment when you obtain the object of corporeal desire; for the attainment of such objects never satisfies desire.

Invoke God as a witness to whatever you do.

The bad man does not think there is a providence.

Assert that which possesses wisdom in you, to be the [true] man.?

The wise man participates of God.

Where that which is wise in you resides, there also is your good.

That which is not noxious to the soul, is not noxious to man.

He who unjustly expels a wise man from the body, confers a benefit on him by his iniquity. For he thus becomes liberated as it were, from bonds.

The fear of death renders a man sad through the ignorance of his soul.

You will not possess intellect, till you understand that you have it.

Think that your body is the garment of your soul; and therefore preserve it pure.

Impure demons vindicate to themselves the impure soul.

Speak not of God to every man.

It is dangerous, and the danger is not small, to speak of God even things which are true.

A true assertion respecting God, is an assertion of God.

You should not dare to speak of God to the multitude.

He does not know God who does not worship him.

The man who is worthy of God is also a God among men.

It is better to have nothing, than to possess much and impart it to no one.

He who thinks that there is a God, and that nothing

1 But intellect is the recipient of wisdom, and therefore intellect is the true man. This also is asserted by Aristotle.

197 is taken care of by him, differs in no respect from him who does not believe that there is a God.

He honors God in the best manner who renders his intellect as much as possible similar to God.

If you injure no one, you will fear no one.

No one is wise who looks downward to the earth.

To lie is to deceive in life, and to be deceived.

Recognise what God is, and what that is in you which recognises God.

It is not death, but a bad life, that destroys the soul.

If you know him by whom you were made, you will know yourself.

It is not possible for a man to live conformable to divinity, unless he acts modestly, well, and justly.

Divine wisdom is true science.

You should not dare to speak of God to an impure soul.

The wise man follows God, and God follows the soul of the wise man.

A king rejoices in those whom he governs, and therefore God rejoices in the wise man. He who governs likewise, is inseparable from those whom he governs; and therefore God is inseparable from the soul of the wise man, which he defends and governs.

The wise man is governed by God, and on this account is blessed.

A scientific knowledge of God causes a man to use few words.

To use many words when speaking of God, produces an ignorance of God.

The man who possesses a knowledge of God, will not be very ambitious.

The erudite,! chaste, and wise soul, is the prophet of the truth of God.

1In the Latin fidelis; but as Ruffinus, the Latin translator of these sentences, frequently adulterates the true meaning of Sextus, by substituting one word for another, I have no doubt that in this sentence the original was wemadevjevos eruditus, and not riaros fidelis. My reason for so thinking is, that in one of the sentences of Demo198

Accustom yourself always to look to Divinity. A wise intellect is the mirror of God.

philus it is said, “that the life of ignorant men is a disgrace,” ray épabay dvedos éwat rov Biov; and this in the sentences of Sextus is, “Hominum infidelium vita, opprobrium est.” If, therefore, Ruffinus translates duabdv, infidelium, there is every reason to suppose that he would translate reraidevjpevos, fidelis.

PYTHAGORIC SENTENCES, FROM THE

PROTREPTICS OF IAMBLICHUS.!

As we live through soul, it must be said that by the virtue of this we live well; just as because we see through the eyes, we see well through the virtue of these.

It must not be thought that gold can be injured by rust, or virtue by baseness.

We should betake ourselves to virtue as to an inviolable temple, in order that we may not be exposed to any ignoble insolence of soul with respect to our communion with, and continuance in life.

We should confide in Virtue as in a chaste wife; but trust to Fortune as to an inconstant mistress.

It is better that virtue should be received accompanied with poverty, than wealth with violence; and frugality with health, than veracity with disease.

An abundance of nutriment is noxious to the body; but the body is preserved when the soul is disposed in a becoming manner.

It is equally dangerous to give a sword to a madman, and power to a depraved man.