Anacharsis (fl. 6th century BCE) was a legendary Scythian prince who has come to exemplify the wise barbarian. He is included in some ancient Greek lists as one of the Seven Wise Men and is extolled as a paradigm of primitive virtue.
According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Anacharsis traveled extensively in quest of knowledge and gained a high reputation for wisdom. He visited Athens during Athenian statesman Solon’s time. Later historians credit Anacharsis with ten letters and numerous aphorisms and refer to an interview between him and Solon. (The Roman statesman-philosopher Cicero translated one of the ten letters.)
The Cynic philosophers represented Anacharsis as a “noble savage,” to be differentiated with the “degenerate” civilized Greeks. Tradition maintains that Anacharsis despised all Greeks except the Spartans.
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A vine bears three grapes, the first of pleasure, the second of drunkenness, and the third of repentance.
—Anacharsis
Topics: Wine, Alcohol
The first draught serveth for health, the second for pleasure, the third or shame, and the fourth for madness.
—Anacharsis
Topics: Drinking
The tongue is, at the same time, the best part of man, and his worst: with good government, none is more useful; without it, none is more mischievous.
—Anacharsis
Play so that you may be serious.
—Anacharsis
Wise men argue cases, fools decide them.
—Anacharsis
Topics: Argument
Every man is his own chief enemy.
—Anacharsis
Topics: Danger
Every man is his own chief enemy.
—Anacharsis
Written laws are like spiders’ webs; they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor, but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.
—Anacharsis
Topics: Lawyers, Law
These written laws are just like spiders’ webs; the small and feeble may be caught and entangled in them, but the rich and mighty force through and despise them.
—Anacharsis
Topics: Law
Play so you may be serious.
—Anacharsis
Topics: Pleasure
A man’s felicity consists not in the outward and visible blessing of fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.
—Anacharsis
Topics: Mind, Fortune
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