Apophthegmata Laconica

When some people were amazed at the costliness of the raiment found among the spoils of the barbarians, he said that it would have been better for them to be themselves men of worth than to possess things of worth. [*](Cf. Plato, Laws, 870 B; Cicero, Paradoxa Stoicorum, vi. 1-3 (42-52). )

After the victory at Plataea over the Persians he ordered that the dinner which had been prepared for the Persians should be served to himself and his officers. As this had a wondrous sumptuousness, he said, By Heaven, the Persian was a greedy fellow who, when he had all this, came after our barley-cake. [*](Cf. Herodotus, ix. 82.)

Pausanias, the son of Pleistoanax, in answer to the question why it was not permitted to change any of the ancient laws in their country, said, Because the laws ought to have authority over the men, and not the men over the laws.

When, in Tegea, after he had been exiled, [*](In 394 B.C.) he commended the Spartans, someone said, Why did you not stay in Sparta instead of going into exile? And he said, Because physicians, too, are wont to spend their time, not among the healthy, but where the sick are. [*](Cf. the similar saying which is attributed to Aristippus in Diogenes Laertius, ii. 70.)