On Book 10 of Diogenes Laertius

Various sayings about the Wise Man.

As we related not long ago from Lucretius. Next, because Cicero himself calls the use of unnecessary elegance the "flower of speech" original: florem orationis, when he writes in his preface to the Paradoxa and to Marcus Brutus regarding Cato: Which is greater in him, he says, than either in you or in us, because we use that philosophy which has produced a wealth of speaking, and in which those things are said which do not differ much from popular opinion. Cato, however, is a perfect Stoic in my opinion, and he feels those things which are certainly not approved by the common people, and he belongs to that sect which follows no flower of speech. In this passage, it is not right to wonder that the refinement of speech was neglected by the Stoics. For Zeno, their leader, considered polished and elegant discourses Book 7. to be like Alexandrian coins: pleasing in appearance and elegant, but in quality and weight, they were inferior to the Attic tetradrachms The tetradrachm was a high-quality silver coin of Ancient Greece; Zeno uses this to compare substantial content to mere flashy style., as is found in Laertius. Since, furthermore, Book 6. many things regarding this saying were gathered in the mentioned place, nothing needs to be repeated here. I only add what comes to mind: that it stands in the same Laertius regarding Diogenes that he called those who sought the greatest glory from speech τρισανθρώπους thrice-human or thrice-miserable, that is, "thrice-wretched."

He will avoid sexual matters, as they never profit, and it is well if they do not harm.

§. 17. συνουσίην δέ (φασιν) ὤνησε μὲν οὐδέποτε. Sexual intercourse, they say, never profited anyone. This saying is linked with the previous one about the Wise Man not falling in love. The common people would believe neither regarding Epicurus because of that preconceived opinion of him as a man of pleasure. It is therefore strange that while the public condemns him for unbridled lack of self-control and considers Tusculan Disputations, 3. his opinions to have been lustful (contrary to what Cicero expressly states), Galen was nevertheless forced to argue against him because he stood out as too frugal and rigid in this matter. Thus, while writing on the third book of Hippocrates' Epidemics, commentary 1. Galen says: For what was the necessity to write that Democritus said intercourse was a small epilepsy, and that Epicurus said the use of sexual matters never ought to happen, and it is a matter of luck if it does not cause harm? and so on. What was the need to write that Democritus called coitus a small epilepsy Ancient physicians often compared the physical intensity of orgasm to a minor seizure or "falling sickness.", and that the use of things belonging to Venus sexual pleasures never profits Epicurus, and it is considered a great success Chapter 85. unless it also causes harm. Indeed, etc. And in his book on the Medical Art, he says: Regarding sexual matters original: ἀφροδισίων, Epicurus says no use of them is healthy, and the truth is, from failures, etc. According to Epicurus, no use of sexual matters is healthy; yet in reality, if Tusculan Disputations, 3. done at intervals, etc. Furthermore, we must not overlook the passage where Cicero concludes with this opinion: In this place, he says, many things are argued by the Epicureans, and these pleasures are individually diminished, the types of which they do not despise, yet they seek a moderate supply. For they say that even obscene pleasures, about which they hold much discourse, are easy, common, and readily available; and these, if nature requires them, are not to be measured by type, or place, or rank,

but by form, age, and figure; and On page 79. they think it is not at all difficult to abstain from them if health, duty, or reputation demand it. Overall, they think this kind of pleasure is desirable if it does not stand in the way, but it never actually profits. Nor should we remain silent about what is found in Plutarch: when certain young men Table Talk, 3, Question 6. disapproved of the fact that in Epicurus's circle the question was discussed whether the use of sexual matters should be before or after dinner, Zopirus the Physician countered that the banquet of Epicurus had not been read carefully enough by them. For Epicurus did not discuss the question as it was initially proposed; instead, when he invited the young men to walk after dinner, he spoke about Temperance and deterred them from wantonness, since these matters are always prone to cause harm, but especially to those who have just been drinking, or those disposed to yesterday's pleasure. This is because sexual matters, while easily harmful at other times, are most harmful to those who engage in them not long after a feast. Furthermore, this is one of the first conditions that Galen himself requires: that the body should not be ὑπερπληρωμένον, ἢ ἐνδεὲς over-filled or empty. And if you change the circumstance of the time of day to the seasons of the year, you will find that the opinion of Pythagoras was the same as that of Epicurus. For he, Book 8. in Laertius, says: Give labor to sexual matters in winter, not in summer; those in autumn are difficult and not good for health. And once when he was asked when one should approach a woman, he said: "When you wish to become weaker." I do not linger, however, in resolving the points that Galen and others raise. Scaliger presents the matter in a few words against Cardano, where he considers it absurd what Paul says in the first book, that the body Exercise 269. grows through the exercise of Venus, and continues: For who does not know that strength is diminished? For what they say about retained semen causing melancholy and preventing digestion is false. For nature unloads itself when it is oppressed, through dreams. It even happens to those who are awake, spontaneously and without sensation. Therefore, that modification of this opinion is vain: for they say it increases strength by accident, by removing the impediments to digestion. Others, however, talk nonsense on the contrary, saying that semen cannot rot in its own vessels. But nothing in nature is moist that cannot contract some vice toward rotting. Therefore many ancient athletes abstained entirely from this mockery: several of whom Plato names in the eighth book of the Laws: Iccus of Tarentum, Crisson, Astyllus, and Diopompus. Therefore you were right to say, following Aristotle, that the life of more lustful animals is shorter. So he says. I pass over here what others have on the same argument, especially Clement of Alexandria, who The Instructor, 2, 10. even relates the saying, not without praise for the author, though with the name withheld. For someone seems to have said rightly, he says, intercourse never profited anyone, and it is a lucky thing if it has not harmed. Porphyry also has the saying in these same words. On Abstinence, 1. Note in passing that the Blessed Clement refers Sermon 6 on Saturn. there to Protagoras, a listener of Democritus, what Democritus said shortly before in Galen regarding coitus.