Now tell me, is there one way only to philosophy, the one you Stoics follow? I have heard there are many other schools as well. Is that right?

HERMOTIMUS

Very many—the Peripatetics, Epicureans, those who take Plato as their patron, others also, the devotees of Diogenes and Antisthenes, Pythagoreans, and more besides.

LYCINUS

True, there are many. Is what they say the same, Hermotimus, or different?

HERMOTIMUS

Quite different.

LYCINUS

At all events, one of their systems, I suppose, is true? They can’t all be true if they differ.

HERMOTIMUS

No, they can’t.