“ but it is silly to reject wealth when it is accompanied by excellence and family. ”
Plutarch, Moralia (c. 100 AD). copy citation
| Author | Plutarch |
|---|---|
| Source | Moralia |
| Topic | wealth family |
| Date | c. 100 AD |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by Arthur Richard Shilleto |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23639/23639-h/23639-h.htm |
Context
“But he that abases his wife and makes her small, like one who tightens the ring on a finger too small for it fearing it will come off,76 is like those who cut their mares' tails off and then take them to a river or pond to drink, when they say that sorrowfully discerning their loss of beauty these mares lose their self-respect and allow themselves to be covered by asses.77 To select a wife for wealth rather than for her excellence or family is dishonourable and illiberal; but it is silly to reject wealth when it is accompanied by excellence and family. Antigonus indeed wrote to his officer who had garrisoned Munychia78 to make not only the collar strong but the dog lean, that he might undermine the strength of the Athenians; but it becomes not the husband of a rich or handsome woman to make his wife poor or ugly, but by his self-control39 and good sense, and by not too extravagantly showing his admiration for her, to exhibit himself as her equal not her slave, and”
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