It is shameful for a man to walk like a fox with tricks; you don't have to go with the wind.
You must teach children everything that will be useful to them when they grow up.
If abundance were an evil, it would not have been present at the feasts of the gods.
When Artistippus was accused of hiring an orator to defend him in court, he said, "When I give a meal, I hire a cook."
When Dionysios I the Elder spat at Artistippus, the latter kept his cool, and when the world began to revile him for it, he said: "Fishermen expose themselves to the spray of the sea to catch a little fish, why should I not endure a spit to catch a big fish?"
When someone proposed a riddle to Artistippus and said: "Untie it!" Artistippus exclaimed: "Why do you want to untie a knot, and thus, tied, it gives us so much trouble?"
Someone said that he always sees philosophers at the doors of the rich. "And doctors," said Artistippus, "go to the doors of the sick, and yet whosoever would rather be a doctor than sick."
It is not praiseworthy to abstain from pleasures, but to dominate them, without submitting to them.
Better to be poor than ignorant: if the former lacks money, the latter lacks a human face.
Drink a lot and don't let the mule get drunk.
When asked how philosophers are superior to other people, Artistippus replied: "If all laws are destroyed, we alone will live as before."
One day, Dionysios I proposed to Artistippus to choose one of three hetaires; Artistippus took all three with him, saying: "It did not go well with Paris when he preferred one of the three."
One day, when Artistippus went with some young men to the house of the hetais, and one of the young men blushed, Artistippus said: "Come, it is not shameful to enter, it is shameful not to have the strength to go out."
One day, when Artistippus passed by Diogenes, who was cleaning some vegetables, the latter said to him ironically: "If you knew how to feed yourself with such things as I do, you would not have to serve at the doors of tyrants. "If you had known how to talk to people," replied Artistippus, "you wouldn't have ended up cleaning your vegetables yourself."
Is it not the same to live in a house where many have stayed as to live in one where no one has stayed? And isn't traveling on a ship that others have traveled on the same as traveling on a brand new one? Likewise, it is the same to live with a woman whom others have known before or with one whom no one has touched.
It's your right to swear, it's my right not to listen.
Philosophy gives you the opportunity to talk to anyone, and therein lies its benefit.
To a man who prided himself on his vast knowledge, Artistippus said: “The fact that one eats a lot does not make one healthier than one who eats only what is necessary for him; in the same way, the learned is not the one who reads a lot, but the one who reads usefully".
To tell the wise from the fool, send them both naked into the world: that's how you'll know the difference.
Wise is he who does not grieve over what he does not have, but rejoices in what he has.
Rich is he who has few desires.
It happens that the house and wealth are sick like the body.
Poverty and wealth are words that denote need and abundance. As a result, he who needs is not rich, and he who does not need is not poor.
The good does not consist in not doing something unjust, but not even in wanting it.
You must prevent the commission of an unjust act. If we are not able to do this, we must at least not facilitate it.
Foolish people swear by the gods when they find themselves in a dead end. When they get rid of her, they don't keep their vows anyway.
Even if you are alone with yourself, do not speak or do anything bad. Learn to be more ashamed of yourself than others.
Wanting too much makes you look like a child, not a man.
Whoever wants to be well-disposed should not take up many tasks either in his personal life or in the social one, and whatever he does not to venture beyond his own strength and character.
Life without parties is like a long road without inns.