Apophthegmata Laconica

Plutarch

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

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.)