Let me tell thee how wittily one did mock the shallowness of this sort of arrogance. A certain man assailed one who had put on the name of philosopher as a cloak to pride and vainglory, not for the practice of real virtue, and added: ‘Now shall I know if thou art a philosopher if thou bearest reproaches calmly and patiently.’ The other for awhile affected to be patient, and, having endured to be abused, cried out derisively: ‘

Now , do you see that I am a philosopher?’ The other, with biting sarcasm, retorted: ‘I should have hadst thou held thy peace.’ Moreover, what concern have choice spirits⁠—for it is of such men we speak, men who seek glory by virtue⁠—what concern, I say, have these with fame after the dissolution of the body in death’s last hour? For if men die wholly⁠—which our reasonings forbid us to believe⁠—there is no such thing as glory at all, since he to whom the glory is said to belong is altogether nonexistent. But if the mind, conscious of its own rectitude, is released from its earthly prison, and seeks heaven in free flight, doth it not despise all earthly things when it rejoices in its deliverance from earthly bonds, and enters upon the joys of heaven?”