Good Wife or Philosopher

Socrates:

"My advice to you is get married if you find a good wife you will be happy, if not ,you will become a philosopher."

Excerpt from Xenophon's Conversations of Socrates

Antisthenes: ". . . why don't you train Xanthippe instead of having a wife who is of all living women - and I believe of all that ever have been or will be - the most difficult to get on with?"

Socrates: "Because I notice that people who want to become good horsemen keep not the most docile horses but ones that are high-spirited, because they think that they can control these, they will easily manage any other horses. In the same way, since I wish to deal and associate with people, I have provided myself with this wife, because I'm quite sure that, if I can put up with her, I shall find it easy to get on with any other human being."

Socrates had a different and contrary view to modern view,”make me happy or i am leaving”, on marriage. Instead of demanding his wife to become perfect embodiment of his desires, he worked on perfecting himself.

Related articles by Zemanta

• The Last Days of Socrates (Penguin Classics) by Plato (slideshare.net)