Maxims of Theognis: To a babbling man silence

To a babbling man silence is the hardest burden, but an unlearned man, if he speak, is so to all in whose presence he may be. All hate him: yet the mixing up of such a man in a banquet is necessary. Nor does he wish to be a friend, when ill has chanced to a man, even though he may have been born of one and the same womb. Be bitter and sweet, harsh and kind, to hired servants and slaves and neighbours near-your-doors. It is not meet often-to-change a good life, but to keep peace: and to alter the ill life, until you have brought it right. The mean are not wholly mean from the womb, but through having cemented a friendship with mean men. And they have learned worthless works, and slanderous words, and insolence, supposing that all was true which those men said.