[23,0] The Twenty-third Discourse:  That the Wise Man is Fortunate and Happy. 
1 (Dion)  Do you believe man is happy, and if not, that he has been or will be; or do you 
hold that such a thing as this is impossible to predicate of man, just as if a person 
were to say that man is immortal? For it is, perhaps, possible that you hold the same 
view as Homer and a good many others of our poets. 
(Interlocutor) And where does Homer express this view on this question? 
(Dion)  Where he has represented Zeus himself, and not some other one of the gods, as 
saying that none of all living creatures is more miserable than man, 
"Of all that breathe and move upon the earth".  
Do you not think that by misery he means expressly some great unhappiness? 
(Interlocuteur) I do. 
2 (Dion)  And another poet, not speaking of any particular man, but expressing a general 
sentiment to the audience in a contest of tragedies, proposes that we should 
That man bewail who's born and all life's ills confronts, 
But him who's dead and free from all his toils  
he thinks we should "with joy and gladness speed from out the house." 
(p305) (Interlocuteur) That is so. 
(Dion)  Well, that was not sound advice he gave; for if we ought to weep once for 
mankind because of their misfortune, then it is fitting that we should both bewail 
their lot when they are born, because of all the evils that are in store for them, and 
when they die, because they have had experience of many terrible sufferings, and 
likewise while they live, because they are in the midst of evils. 3 Consequently there 
would never be a fitting time, according to the poet, for men to cease lamenting — 
much more truly than for the nightingales. For while those creatures are said to 
mourn for Itys  in the springtime only — yet in the case of human beings it stands to 
reason that they should mourn both summer and winter. But how much better it 
would be to let them perish at once of their ills as soon as they are born, instead of 
wrapping them up in swaddling clothes and bathing them and nursing them and 
giving them so much care, simply in order that they may be wretched — for such 
solicitude would befit enemies, not friends or those who care for them — or, better 
still, to remove their own selves from life in the first place! 4 For it is very likely, 
according to this line of reasoning, that the only sensible people to be born were those 
born in Colchis from the dragon's teeth which Jason sowed.  For these people, just as 
soon as they understood that they were born, forthwith proceeded to make away with 
one another until they left not one, helping one (p307) another, evidently, and doing this 
through friendship, not through hatred. 
5 (Interlocuteur) Well, for my part, I think that what this poet says is nonsense. But Homer's statement disturbs me because, wise though he was, he expressed that view about mankind. 
(Dion)  And what absurdity is there in it? He does not say that all men without exception 
are wretched, but that there is no creature more wretched than man when he is 
wretched, just as we too undoubtedly should say; for, mark you, man is perhaps the 
only unfortunate creature of them all, just as he is the only fortunate one; for, you see, 
man alone is said to be 'senseless,' just as man alone is said to be 'sensible.' It is clear 
that a horse cannot be either unjust or dissolute, nor can a pig or a lion, just as it 
cannot be uncultured or illiterate. 
6 (Interlocuteur) Well, I think you have made an excellent correction of Homer's statement, and I reply that I believe man is fortunate. 
(Dion)  Then when a man's fortune or guardian spirit is good, you maintain that the man 
is fortunate, but when it is bad, that he is unfortunate, do you?  
(Interlocuteur) I do. 
(Dion)  And do you speak of a guardian spirit as good in a different sense? 
(p309) (Interlocuteur) What do you mean? 
(Dion)  In the sense in which a man is good and, still more, a god; or if you do think that 
the gods are good, do you think that they are not just and sensible and self-controlled 
and in possession of all the other virtues, but unjust and senseless and intemperate? 
(Interlocuteur) I certainly do not. 
(Dion)  Then in the case of a guardian spirit also, if you really consider any to be good, is 
it not clear that you consider it just and useful and sensible? 
(Interlocuteur) Why, of course. 
(Dion)  Pray, when you think that any person is bad, do you believe that he is at the same 
time evil and unjust and senseless? 
(Interlocuteur) Most assuredly so. 
7 (Dion)  Well, then, do you not think that each man lives under the direction of his own 
guiding spirit, of whatever character it may be, and is not directed by a different one? 
(Interlocuteur) Certainly not directed by that of a different one. 
(Dion)  Then do you believe that the man to whom Fortune has given a good guardian 
spirit lives justly and prudently and temperately? For this is the character that you 
agree his spirit has. 
(Interlocuteur) Certainly. 
(Dion)  And that the man to whom Fortune has given the bad guardian spirit lives 
wickedly and senselessly and foolishly and intemperately? 
(Interlocuteur) That appears to follow from what we have just said. 
(Dion)  Then when a man is in possession of intelligence and is just and temper, is this 
man fortunate because he is attended by a good spirit; (p311) but when a man is 
dissolute and foolish and wicked, must we maintain that he is unfortunate because he 
is yoked to a bad spirit and serves it? 
(Interlocuteur) True. 
8 (Dion)  And do you describe as wise anyone except the man who is sensible and just 
and holy and brave, and as a fool him who is unjust and unholy and cowardly? 
(Interlocuteur) I do. 
(Dion)  Then you should no longer be surprised when people say that they hold the wise 
man alone and without exception to be fortunate or happy, whereas of fools there is 
none that is not unfortunate or unhappy; you should agree to this inasmuch as you 
also seem to hold that view. 
9 (Interlocuteur) What you have said so far I think has been quite reasonable; but how are we to consider any spirit to be wicked and unjust and senseless, I am unable to say; and 
besides, it is not like you philosophers, if you really hold that the guiding spirit is 
divine, to assume any such thing. 
(Dion)  Well, just now I have not been expressing my own view for the most part except 
in this one matter — that I believe every wise man is fortunate and happy and he 
alone; but in everything else I have accepted the views of the majority of men, that 
I may not seem to be forcing my own views on them. 

[23,10] For just consider: If you really believe 
that the guiding spirit is divine and good and the author of no evil to anyone, 
how do you explain a man's becoming unfortunate, that is, unhappy? Or does that 
happen when he does not heed or obey his guiding spirit, this being good? It is just as 
if we should think that all physicians are good in the matters of (p313) their profession 
and that none of them is a bad physician or harmful, but yet should see some of their 
patients doing poorly and suffering harm in their illnesses; evidently we should say 
that they refuse to obey orders and that such patients as do obey cannot but come 
through well; and nothing that should happen to them would surprise anyone. 
(Interlocuteur) That is right. 
11 (Dion)  Do you think, therefore, that the really self-controlled and sober and sensible 
patients are those who would disobey their physicians when these are skilled and 
prescribe the treatment that is good for them, or, on the contrary, the senseless and 
uncontrolled? 
(Interlocuteur) Evidently the uncontrolled. 
(Dion)  Then again, do you hold that to obey the guardian spirit when it is good, and to 
live in conformity with its direction, is a mark of those who are temperate and 
sensible or of those who are wicked and senseless? 
(Interlocuteur) Of those who are temperate. 
12 (Dion)  And that to refuse to obey and give heed and to act contrary to that which is 
divine and from the guardian spirit is a mark of the bad and foolish? 
(Interlocuteur) How could we say anything else? 
(Dion)  And that those who obey the guiding spirit, since it is of this character, are 
'fortunate and happy,' and that those who disobey are 'unfortunate and unhappy?' 
(Interlocuteur) Necessarily so. 
(p315) (Dion)  Therefore, here also it turns out that the wise and sensible man is 'fortunate 
and happy' in every case, but that the worthless man is 'unfortunate and unhappy,' 
not because his guardian spirit is bad, but because, although it is good, he does not 
heed it.