Theophrastus has recorded that Philip, the father of Alexander, was not only great among kings, but, owing to his fortune and his conduct, proved himself still greater and more moderate Cf. Cicero, , i. 26 (90).

He said that he must congratulate the Athenians on their happy fortune if they could find ten men every year to elect as generals; for he himself in many years had found only one general, Parmenio.

When several happy events were reported to him within a single day, he said, O Fortune, do me some little ill to offset so many good things like these ! Repeated in , 105 A and 666 A.

After his victory over the Greeks, when some were advising him to hold the Greek cities in subjection by means of garrisons, he said that he preferred to be called a good man for a long time rather than a master for a short time.

When his friends advised him to banish from his court a man who maligned him, he said he would not, so that the man should not go about speaking ill of him among more people. A similar story is told of Pyrrhus in Plutarch’s , chap. viii. (387 E).