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But it is necessary for me to speak for the sake of the judges. For so great is the wealth of virtue, so much sweeter, so much more desirable than that among you, that those who have it would never be willing to take the whole earth in exchange for it, even if it became gold, along with the mountains and the sea and the rivers. And if it were possible for this to happen, you would have learned from the experience itself that these are not the words of boasting, but finding virtue much more and greater, they would despise that wealth, and would never exchange this for that. And why do I say, exchange? They would not even choose to take it along with that wealth. And yet if someone were to offer you the wealth of virtue along with money, you would receive it with upturned hands; so you confess that it is something great and wonderful. But these would not choose your wealth along with their own; so they know that it is a thing easily despised. And this I will again make clear from your own examples. For how much money do you think Alexander would have given to Diogenes, if he had been willing to accept it? But he was not willing; but the other strove and did everything, so as to be able to attain to the wealth of this one. εʹ. And do you wish to see your poverty from another point of view, and the wealth of your son? Therefore go, and take away from him his cloak, the only thing he has, and lead him out of his hut, and pull down his lodging, and not even so will you see him displeased or grieving, but he will even be grateful to you for these things, inasmuch as you push him further toward philosophy; but if someone takes only ten drachmas from you, you will never cease weeping and wailing. Who then is wealthy, the one who is stung by small things, or the one who despises all possessions? And do not do this only, but also drive him out of the whole country, and you will see him laughing at these things, as at a child playing. But if someone drives you from your fatherland only, you will suffer the most terrible things, and you will not even bear the misfortune; but he, since the whole earth and sea are his, will so easily and without grief move from these places to others, just as you walking through your own fields; or rather, even more easily. For although it is permitted for you to walk through your own lands, yet it is also necessary to walk through the lands of others; but he will travel through all his own land; and lakes and rivers and springs provide him abundant drink from all sides, and his food is vegetables and herbs, and bread from many places. For I do not yet say to you that he despises even the whole earth, having heaven as his city. 47.338 And if it should be necessary to die, he will bear death more sweetly than your luxury, and will pray to die thus, rather than you in your fatherland and in your bed; so that one might call a wanderer and a fugitive and a vagabond the one who has a city and inhabits a house, but not him who is delivered from all these things. For you will not be able to lead him out of his fatherland, unless you lead him out of the whole earth; for for the time being let it be said so, since according to the true account you will then most of all send him away to his fatherland, when you lead him out of the earth. But this is not yet for you who knows nothing more than the things which are seen. Nor will you be able to show him naked, as long as he is clothed in the garments of virtue, nor will you destroy him with hunger, as long as he knows the true food. But by all these things the rich are able to be captured; so that in this respect also one would not err in calling these men poor, and exceedingly poor, and those men precisely wealthy. For he who is able to be well-supplied with food and drink and a house and rest everywhere, and not only not grieving, but also living more sweetly in these things than you in yours, it is very clear that he is wealthier than all of you who are rich, who are able to be well-supplied with these things only at home. Whence he does not know how to ever lament poverty. For not only in abundance is this wealth better, nor in pleasure, but also in being inexhaustible, and in never changing into poverty, nor being subject to the uncertainty of the future, nor having cares, nor being overcome by envy, but in possessing all admiration and praise and acclamation;

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ἐμοὶ δὲ ἀναγκαῖον διὰ τοὺς δικάζοντας εἰπεῖν. Τοσοῦτος γὰρ ὁ τῆς ἀρετῆς πλοῦτός ἐστιν, οὕτως ἡδίων, οὕτω ποθεινότερος τοῦ παρ' ὑμῖν, ὡς μηδ' ἄν ποτε ἐθελῆσαι τοὺς ἔχοντας αὐτὸν τὴν ἅπασαν γῆν, εἰ χρυσὸς γένοιτο μετὰ τῶν ὀρῶν καὶ τῆς θαλάσσης καὶ τῶν ποταμῶν, ἀντ' ἐκείνου λαβεῖν. Καὶ εἴ γε ἦν δυνατὸν τοῦτο γενέσθαι, ἔμαθες ἂν ἀπὸ τῆς πείρας αὐτῆς, ὡς οὐκ ἀλαζονείας τὰ ῥήματα, ἀλλὰ πολλῷ πλείω καὶ μείζω εὑρόντες καταφρονήσουσιν ἐκείνου, καὶ οὐκ ἄν ποτε αὐτὸν ἀλλάξαιντο τούτου. Καὶ τί λέγω, ἀλλάξαιντο; οὐδὲ μετ' ἐκείνου μὲν οὖν λαβεῖν αὐτὸν ἕλοιντο ἄν. Καίτοι ὑμῖν εἴ τις ἐδίδου τὸν τῆς ἀρετῆς πλοῦτον μετὰ τῶν χρημάτων, ὑπτίαις ἂν ἐδέξασθε χερσίν· οὕτως ὁμολογεῖτε μέγαν τινὰ ἐκεῖνον καὶ θαυμαστόν· οὗτοι δὲ οὐκ ἂν ἕλοιντο τὸν ὑμέτερον μετὰ τοῦ οἰκείου· οὕτως ἴσασιν ὅτι πρᾶγμά ἐστιν εὐκαταφρόνητον. Καὶ τοῦτο πάλιν ἀπὸ τῶν ὑμετέρων παραδειγμάτων ποιήσω φανερόν. Πόσα γὰρ οἴει χρήματα τὸν Ἀλέξανδρον τῷ ∆ιογένει, εἴ γε ἤθελε δέξασθαι, δοῦναι ἄν; Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἠθέλησεν· ἐκεῖνος δὲ ἐφιλονείκει καὶ πάντα ἔπραττε, ὥστε δυνηθῆναί ποτε ἐπὶ τὸν πλοῦτον ἐλθεῖν τὸν τούτου. εʹ. Βούλει δὲ καὶ ἑτέρωθέν σου τὴν πενίαν ἰδεῖν, καὶ τοῦ παιδὸς τὴν εὐπορίαν τοῦ σοῦ; Οὐκοῦν ἄπελθε, καὶ ἀφελοῦ αὐτοῦ τὸ ἱμάτιον, ὅπερ ἔχει μόνον, καὶ τῆς καλύβης ἐξάγαγε, καὶ κάθελε τὸ καταγώγιον, καὶ οὐδὲ οὕτως ὄψει δυσχεραίνοντα οὐδὲ ἀλγοῦντα, ἀλλά σοι καὶ χάριν εἴσεται τούτων, ὅσον πρὸς φιλοσοφίαν πλέον ὠθεῖς αὐτόν· σοῦ δὲ ἄν τις δέκα δραχμὰς ἀφέληται μόνον, θρηνῶν καὶ ὀδυρόμενος οὐ διαλείψεις ποτέ. Τίς οὖν εὔπορος, ὁ τοῖς μικροῖς δακνόμενος, ἢ ὁ πάντων τῶν ὄντων καταφρονῶν; Καὶ μὴ τοῦτο ποιήσῃς μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς χώρας ἁπάσης ἀπέλασον, καὶ ὄψει γελῶντα ἐπὶ τούτοις, καθάπερ ἐπὶ παιδίου παίζοντος. Σὲ δὲ ἂν τῆς πατρίδος ἀπελάσῃ τις μόνον, τὰ δεινότατα πείσῃ, καὶ οὐδὲ οἴσεις τὴν συμφοράν· ἐκεῖνος δὲ, ἅτε πάσης τῆς γῆς οὔσης αὐτοῦ καὶ τῆς θαλάσσης, οὕτως εὐκόλως καὶ ἀλύπως ἀπὸ τούτων ἐφ' ἕτερα μεταστήσεται, καθάπερ σὺ διὰ τῶν οἰκείων ὁδεύων ἀγρῶν· μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ εὐκολώτερον. Σοὶ μὲν γὰρ εἰ καὶ διὰ τῶν σῶν βαδίζειν ἔξεστιν, ἀλλ' ὅμως καὶ δι' ἀλλοτρίων ἀνάγκη· ἐκεῖνος δὲ διὰ πάσης τῆς αὐτοῦ πορεύσεται γῆς· καὶ ποτὸν μὲν αὐτῷ πάντοθεν δαψιλῶς παρέχουσι λίμναι καὶ ποταμοὶ καὶ πηγαὶ, τροφὴ δὲ αὐτῷ λάχανα καὶ βοτάναι, καὶ ἄρτοι δὲ πολλαχόθεν. Οὔπω γάρ σοι λέγω, ὅτι καὶ τῆς γῆς ἁπάσης καταφρονεῖ, πόλιν 47.338 ἔχων τὸν οὐρανόν. Κἂν τελευτῆσαι δέῃ, τῆς τρυφῆς ὑμῶν ἥδιον οἴσει τὴν τελευτὴν, καὶ εὔξεται οὕτως ἀποθανεῖν μᾶλλον, ἢ ὑμεῖς ἐπὶ τῆς πατρίδος καὶ τῆς εὐνῆς· ὥστε καὶ πλάνον καὶ φυγάδα καὶ ἀλήτην τὴν πόλιν ἔχοντα καὶ οἰκίαν οἰκοῦντα, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐκεῖνον εἴποι τις ἂν τὸν πάντων τούτων ἀπηλλαγμένον. Οὔτε γὰρ τῆς πατρίδος αὐτὸν ἐξαγαγεῖν δυνήσῃ, ἕως ἂν μὴ ἐξαγάγῃς τῆς γῆς ἁπάσης· τέως γὰρ οὕτως εἰρήσθω, ἐπεὶ κατὰ τὸν ἀληθῆ λόγον τότε μάλιστα αὑτὸν εἰς τὴν πατρίδα ἀποπέμψεις, ὅταν ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ἐξαγάγῃς. Ἀλλ' οὔπω τοῦτο πρὸς σὲ τὸν οὐδὲν πλέον τῶν ὁρωμένων εἰδότα. Οὐδὲ γυμνὸν δεῖξαι δυνήσῃ, ἕως ἂν τὰ τῆς ἀρετῆς ἱμάτια περικείμενος ᾖ, οὔτε λιμῷ διαφθερεῖς, ἕως ἂν εἰδῇ τὴν ὄντως τροφήν. Ἀλλὰ πᾶσι τούτοις οἱ πλουτοῦντές εἰσιν ἁλώσιμοι· ὥστε καὶ κατὰ τοῦτο οὐκ ἄν τις ἁμάρτοι τούτους μὲν πένητας προσειπὼν, καὶ σφόδρα πένητας, εὐπόρους δὲ ἐκείνους ἀκριβῶς. Ὁ γὰρ καὶ τροφῆς καὶ ποτοῦ καὶ οἰκίας καὶ ἀναπαύσεως πανταχοῦ δυνάμενος εὐπορεῖν, καὶ οὐ μόνον μὴ ἀλύων, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἥδιον ἐν τούτοις ἢ ὑμεῖς ἐν τοῖς ὑμετέροις διάγων, εὔδηλον ὅτι πάντων ὑμῶν τῶν πλουτούντων ἐστὶν εὐπορώτερος τῶν ἐπὶ τῆς οἰκίας μόνης τούτων δυναμένων εὐπορεῖν. Ὅθεν οὐδὲ πενίαν οἶδεν ἐκεῖνος θρηνῆσαί ποτε. Οὐδὲ γὰρ τῇ ἀφθονίᾳ μόνον οὗτος ὁ πλοῦτος βελτίων, οὐδὲ τῇ ἡδονῇ, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῷ ἀνάλωτος εἶναι, καὶ εἰς πτωχείαν μὴ μεταβαλεῖν ποτε, μηδὲ ὑποκεῖσθαι τῷ τοῦ μέλλοντος ἀδήλῳ, μηδὲ φροντίδας ἔχειν, μηδὲ βασκανίᾳ χειροῦσθαι, ἀλλὰ θαῦμα καὶ ἔπαινον καὶ εὐφημίαν κεκτῆσθαι πᾶσαν·