Apophthegmata Laconica

Plutarch

Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. III. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1931 (printing).

This is the answer of Hippocratidas to the governor of Caria who wrote a letter to him because

a man from Sparta had been privy to the plot of certain conspirators, and had said nothing about it; and the governor added a line, asking how he should deal with him. Hippocratidas wrote in reply: If you have done him any great favour, put him to death; but if not, expel him from your country, for he is a poltroon so far as any virtue is concerned.

When a youth with a lover in attendance met him one day, and turned colour, he said, You ought to walk with persons such that when you are seen with them you shall keep the same complexion.