To Demonicus

When you are placed in authority, do not employ any unworthy person in your administration; for people will blame you for any mistakes which he may make. Retire from your public trusts, not more wealthy, but more highly esteemed; for the praise of a people is better than many possessions. Never support or defend a bad cause, for people will suspect that you yourself do the things which you aid others in doing.

Put yourself in a position in which you have the power to take advantage, but refrain when you have your fair share, so that men may think that you strive for justice, not from weakness, but from a sense of equity. Prefer honest poverty to unjust wealth;[*](Cf. Theog. 145-8: bou/leo d' eu)sebe/wn su\n xrh/masin oi)kei=n h)\ ploutei=n, a)di/kws xrhma/ta pasa/menos. e)n de\ dikaiosu/nh| sullh/bdhn pa=s' a)reth/ e)stin, pa=s de/ t' a)nh\r a)gaqo/s, *ku/rne, di/kaios e)w/n..) for justice is better than riches in that riches profit us only while we live, while justice provides us glory even after we are dead, and while riches are shared by bad men, justice is a thing in which the wicked can have no part.[*](Cf. Isoc. 2.32; Theog. 315-18: polloe/ toi ploutou=si kakoi/, a)gaqoi\ de\ pe/nontai: a)ll' h(mei=s tou/tois ou) diameiyo/meqa th=s a)reth=s to\n plou=tin, e)pei\ to\ me\n e)/mpedon ai)ei/, xrh/mata d' a)nqrw/pwn a)/llote a)/llos e)/xei.)

Never emulate those who seek to gain by injustice, but cleave rather to those who have suffered loss in the cause of justice; for if the just have no other advantage over the unjust, at any rate they surpass them in their high hopes.[*](This suggests the noble passage on just living in Isoc. 8.34. Cf. Isoc. 4.28 and note. Life beyond this life is a “hope” in Isocrates; what he is sure of is the immortality of fame. See Isoc. 5.134.)

Give careful heed to all that concerns your life, but above all train your own intellect; for the greatest thing in the smallest compass is a sound mind in a human body.[*](From Periander. See Stob. Flor . iii. 56: *peri/andros e)rwthqei/s, ti/ me/giston e)n e)laxi/stw|, ei)=pe, fre/nes a)gaqai\ e)n sw/mati a)nqrw/pou) Strive with your body to be a lover of toil, and with your soul to be a lover of wisdom, in order that with the one you may have the strength to carry out your resolves, and with the other the intelligence to foresee what is for your good.