When Epictetus rebuked him and advised him to
get married and have children, saying that a philosopher ought to leave nature a substitute when he
is gone, his answer was very much to the point:
« Then give me one of your daughters, Epictetus!”

 
His reply to Herminus the Aristotelian deserves
mention, Aware that, although he was an out-andout scoundrel and had done a thousand misdeeds,
he sang the praises of Aristotle and had his Ten
Sentences (the Categories) on his tongue’s end,
Demonax said: “Herminus, you really need ten
sentences!”

 
When the Athenians, out of rivalry with the
Corinthians, were thinking of holding a gladiatorial
show, he came before th.m and said: “Don’t pass
this resolution, men of Athens, without first pulling
down the altar of Mercy.”

 
When he went to Olympia’and the Eleans voted
him a bronze statue, he said: “Don’t do this, men
of Elis, for fear you may appear to reflect on yotr
ancestors because they did not set up statues either
to Socrates or to Diogenes.”



 

 

I once heard him say to..., the lawyer, that
in all likelihood the laws were of no use, whether
framed for the bad or the good; for the latter had no
need of laws, and the former were not improved by
them.